Articles bloat.
You start writing an article, expecting it to stay well within the boundaries, and then it just takes off. And about two hours later, you're wondering where things went wrong. Why is your article looking like a dog's breakfast?
There are two reasons for article bloat
Reason 1: Avoiding Outlines
Reason 2: Bullet Points Cause Bloating.
We've already seen how avoiding outlines leads to article bloat, so let's now look at how bullets cause a migraine of sorts. (This was the article few weeks ago)
In your article your bullets points can create the basis for bloating
That's because you've just gone and stuffed your outline with loads of bullet points. And soon the bullet points take on a life of their own. You feel compelled to give adequate detail about every bullet point. And then it happens: Your article is in bloat mode. It can't help but expand in all directions. And for us to understand this phenomenon, we have to see an example.
So here comes the example of an outline
The importance of terse, specific commands in training
– The rambling teacher
-Why rambles are dangerous.
– takes time
– prone to misinterpretation
– causes students to want to do too much, too soon.
– Getting one step done, wax on, wax off.
Examples of terse commands
Pep Guardiola.
– Summary
– Next Step
The above outline looks like a perfectly manageable outline…
Yet let's not focus on the outline but on the bullet points in the article. Notice this part in particular.
-Why rambles are dangerous.
– takes time
– prone to misinterpretation
– causes students to want to do too much, too soon.
Each of those bullet points could be articles by themselves.
In effect you could write three articles with headlines that went like this:
– Why rambling answers in training take up too much of the student's time.
– Why rambling answers in training are prone to misinterpretation.
– Why rambling answers may lead to students wanting too much, too soon.
So the question arises…
Should you remove some of the bullet points that are causing the bloat? But what if you consider those points to be important? What if you feel the article is incomplete if you don't cover those points?
Well keep the points. Don't remove the bullet points. But spend no more than a few lines on each of the points.
So your article should visually look like this:
– Why rambling answers in training take up too much of the student's time.
Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah,
– Why rambling answers in training are prone to misinterpretation.
Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah
– Why rambling answers may lead to students wanting too much, too soon.
Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah,
As you see I've allocated no more than four lines of explanation to each bullet point.
You may choose three lines. You may choose two. Whatever you choose, be aware of one thing. Bullet points can quickly cause bloating in an article. And suddenly, if you have about six-eight bullet points in your article, you could have six-eight massive paragraphs jostling for room.
And I don't have to tell you what to do
You already know what you need to do next.
1) Write fewer bullet points in your article.
2) If you must write a lot of bullet points, then keep the explanation to a few lines.
And yes, there's no reason why those bullet points can't become articles by themselves later
Yes even though you've written about them briefly in your current article. In fact, it's a superb idea to indeed give each of your bullet points the spotlight they deserve and give them an article of their own in future.
That way you cover the bullet points in brief—and later in detail.
Most importantly you prevent bloat.
Phew!
Read earlier article in this series on “bloat”: https://www.psychotactics.com/art-article-outlining/
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I found that you need to have laser-sharp focus when writing articles, not because long-winded articles are boring to read, but because laser-focused articles are what customers are looking for.
It took me my first 200 artiicles to get my voice, but 700+ articles later I totally agree with you. You have to keep on task, start with the headline and then just answer the question from the headline in the body copy then get out.
There is nothing else to it. Just make sure that you don’t keep repeating yourself to make the article longer. Customers don’t have time for that.
-Joshua Black
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While I write my articles, I keep a notebook open for other article ideas. And boy, do they come. The issue is I want to create this giant article that explains everything. But that is not the way blogs work. So I ask myself if I could write an entire post about that topic. If I can, I write it in my notebook.
I finish the article I’m working of without going into much detail about the topic I wrote in my notebook. Later, when the topic becomes an article, I can link to it.
That’s what the web is for!