Speed Limit: 500 Words

by Jan Geronimo on October 12, 2009

George Angus

A Guest Post By George Angus

I‘ve got some writer’s block going on. I still write nearly every day. How can this be, you say? Well, it’s because my wall is made of 500 words.

You see, I’ve been blogging for over a year now and most every post is – you guessed it – 500 words. I’ve done a lot of work for clients and writing on other blogs and the criteria for most of the posts is…

500 words

Being the anal-retentive, short attention span type of fella, I adhere to this unspoken rule of blog post length. I may be a few words short of 500 sometimes (and a few fries short of a happy meal) but I rarely exceed the speed limit.

This has had an impact on my writing. Now, if I try to expand a topic to more than 500 words, I stare blankly at the computer screen, eyes glazed over, a thin line of droll trickling from the corner of my half open mouth as I cogitate how to go over the speed limit without saying what I’ve already said.

It really is a remarkable case of writer’s block. An unintended consequence of blogging if you will. In the back of my head I wonder how this would affect any future novel I may write. Would it have 500 word chapters? Would each scene in the novel be a mere 500 words?

I’m ghost writing a non-fiction book for a chap and honestly, it is becoming more and more difficult to exceed the speed limit with each sub-section of the book.

Who decided the speed limit, anyway?

I suspect no one did. Not even Darren or @ProBlogger. Not even our good friend Jan. I think it was decided by mob mentality. That’s  right. Blame the readers. After all, we are told they have the attention span of a gnat. “Don’t go over 500 words! You’ll bore people! They’ll leave, never to return”. Okay, even with the snarkiness of that last sentence, I have to admit there is some kernel of truth there. For myself, if I see that a post is like 1000 or 1500 words, I say “Thanks, but no thanks” and I move along. Unless it is something I am outrageously interested in. In that case I’ll hang for quite a while.

Maybe that’s the key to breaking the speed limit. Maybe we need to write stellar content regardless of length. Make it interesting to as many people as possible and let the short-attention-spanners stumble along to their next page.

I’m not certain if that is the answer to this dilemma. I’ll leave that to someone with much more talent and wisdom than I. Ahem. That would be YOU, dear readers.

On a final note, I am wondering how many of you did a cut and paste of this post into your word processor to see the word count. I know you are out there. I can hear you breathin’.

Thanks for having me Jan.

About the Author:  George Angus is an Author, a Teacher and an all around good guy.  He owns Tumblemoose Writing Services, lives in Alaska and has a beautiful six-year-old daughter whom he orbits around.

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Tagged as: blog post length, George Angus, guest writers, Tumblemoose Writing Services

Related Posts

  • DiTesco
    502 words actually (without the bio), that is in accordance with my word processor at least:). That is amazing, did you actually shoot for the 500 words? haha. Anyway, I really don't think very much about the word counts, unless of course it requires more than three page down hits by my readers.

    Maybe there should be a "speed limit" for commenting as well, lol. I have seen comments longer than posts, can you believe that?
  • Hey DiTesco,

    I have seen some gasconading comments. If they added value I had no problem, but sometimes I swear people write to hear themselves talk!

    Lol and believe it or not, when the post was complete, I did check the word count in OpenOffice (tonex). It was 499. I made a few changes and the word count (not including title) on the document I sent Jan was... 500 words

    Hehe.

    George
  • TracyOConnor
    I can confidently say that I've never paid the least amount of attention to the speed limit.

    The internet is so big, I figure if I only cater to folks who will read longer posts, that's still a nice sized chunk of people.
  • Hey Tracy,

    Yeah, but you've always got good stuff going - makes a difference it does.

    george
  • George, very interesting your experience with word count.

    Here's my experience:

    I regularly write 800-1200 word posts. Sometimes longer. Considerably.

    My average time on site (Alexa): 3.9 minutes.

    I've tried to cut down my post length in the past, and will try harder in the future, but what I'm doing right now seems to be working.

    Even if it does fly in the face of expert advice.

    Granted, I'm not monetizing heavily at the moment. So my experience may change later. But that's what I'm seeing right now.
  • Dave, I wholly believe that if you have something that is working with you, stick with it. it is impossible to attach a single standard to anything in this crazy, mixed up blogging business.

    Rock on wi you bad self

    George
  • Hmm... I wonder my name didn't have a link. (Fixed it. Suddenly my Disqus profile didn't have any information. Sorry, Jan.)
  • It shows the link now, Tonex... Wordstar - it's still in use? LOL
  • Haha! I had to comment as soon as I finished reading, no time for MS Word counters lol. As a reader, just seeing a huge blob of text intimidates me - yikes. And I think if a post will be lengthier than 500 words, it should be broken up into bite sized portions. :D Yummy.

    Thanks for the fun post George!
  • Reyjr,

    Thanks for the comments! I'm so glad Jan let me guest over here. From all I've seen of this community, this ought to be a blast!

    George
  • @Rey: Your taste in the culinary arts is showing. ",) Thanks, Rey.

    @George: I was shy to ask you in Twitter about the guest post. Just reassured myself you're polishing and buffing it. And it turned out just that - a gem of a post. Thanks, George!
  • Jan,

    I used the same buff and polish cloth that I use on my head.

    Mmmm. Shiny!

    George
  • What's a word processor? Nowadays, I use CMS tools more than Wordstar. I mean...
  • Hehe. Wordstar. What a hoot! Reminds me of the heady days of word-vs-wordperfect...
  • Hi George, I couldn't agree more. I've been in the same prison, though recently I've decided to shed the shackles! So far so good.
  • Sean,

    Yeah, but you could write ingredient labels for junk food and I'd be all about reading them! :-) hostessdotcom :-)

    Hehe.

    George
  • wow, you're a great writer! i stumbled upon your post about "10 ways to bring sexy back to your blog" and i agree that to improve on writing, reading the works of good writers will help. i should visit this blog often then. :)
  • Doc Grace: I wish I could say I wrote this post. Perfect little gem, isn't it? Humorous, conversational and to the point. But it's by George Angus!

    The other post you're referring to was mine though. Thank you. I'm very much flattered you still remember that. ",)
  • sheesh. i was too excited to tell you i love your writings then i realized i posted on a blog by a guest writer. :P but then george is amazing, too. i have to agree about the difficulty keeping the audience interested when the blog is more than 500 words. That was also a tip I got from ezine, although it didn't exactly state 500. :)

    i read your previous on the "sexy back" from jaypee's blog. it's so nice to find people who can write really well. i was at the clinic this morning and i had fun reading your entries through the google reader. kudos to you and george and the other guest writers! great works!
  • No problem, Grace. I'm sure it's all right with George.

    Wow, a confirmed feed reader. Thanks a lot, Grace.
  • I am wondering how many of you did a cut and paste of this post into your word processor to see the word count.


    Almost did as you suggested but I changed my mind because I have a feeling that I could trust your words that this entry is indeed has "500 words," counts.
  • Hi Darbs,

    Hehe. Ok, ya got me. :-)

    george
  • my latest post has almost 2,000 words. i don't even like to reread it because of its length. hehe.

    but under normal circumstances, i stick with the 400-700. thanks for this post George!
  • Hello, Maki! Este, Novz. Just kidding. A 2k post. Well, I have to check that one out now.
  • Ahahahhaha UU nga ano... jijijijijiji... pero mahirap magsulat ng 500 words ah.... Teka di ko pa pala binibilang kung ilang words gawa ko.... jijijijiji... pero malamang maswerte nang umabot ng 30 words... nyahahahahhaha
  • Thirty words? But you spice it up with great pictures, Jaydee. What is worse reading experience is if you stretch a terse post just to make it seem longer. As long as you've made your point, that's okay for me already. ",)
  • lionslinger
    Word counts are not important. It is how it affects the readers that counts. :-)
  • If in your drive for brevity, you make your reader puzzled as to what you mean in your post, would you say it's effective communication? If, on the other hand, you punished your readers with a 2k-word post when you could have said your piece in half the length, that's bad reader experience still, right?

    In this sense, you've correct. How it affects the reader or how effective you are in conveying your message is more important and that's regardless of word count.

    Generally speaking, however, shorter posts make for more effective blogging. It's just the nature of the blogging beast. ",)
  • ha.. I was prompted to copy&paste your post for a word count but didn't in the end, I chose to trust you instead. ^^ For me, length is not really a 'big' problem as long the topic catches my interest. Of course, a moderate length may be more welcoming, everyone is busy right? Sometimes I would just save the page and finish it later in the afternoon. Troublesome? Not if it's a valuable read.

    I wouldn't do a post length-control on my blog, which is why sometimes it's TOO lengthy. Shame on me. Perhaps I shall consider a series? Maybe.

    Nice meeting you. ^^

    @wchingya
    Social/Blogging Tracker
  • Hi George,

    This is similar to Doc Z's 140FF (flash fiction). Composing an article with 500 words takes considerable skill and talent. On the other hand, it would be difficult to use this in creative writing (except for FF) as it would limit and constrict the "flow" of the author's ideas.

    Thanks for sharing such vital information.
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