Apr 05 2007
Can You Run Out Of Words?
I was telling one friend how another friend had teased me about how short my emails had become since I began my blog.
He had said to me, “You used to write several paragraphs, now all I get are a few sentences.”
It’s true; I do write fewer emails and they have shrunk.
The friend I told this to replied, “Do you think that you only have so many words in you each day? Does your writing use them all up so you don’t have any left for emails?”
I considered this and realized that I do have a limit. When I write, I pour so much into my writing, it’s not the flow of words that run dry, it’s me.
Writing is creative. The act of creation is to make or bring into existence something new.
That’s tiring.
Have you found this to be true? Do you run out of words?
I’ve kind of thought about this too. “How much can I write in one day” . . . i need to install a counter on my laptop just to see the total amount of words I type out. I actually don’t even email with my friends much, we chat instead these days! Email’s the new snail-mail . . didn’t you know Ms. Q?
Gary: when you say chat do you mean IM or an actual call?
Email’s the news snail-mail? Egads! I’m always a late adopter generally because I’m slow on the uptake and clueless about the latest much less the greatest.
I still write postcards (I travel so much that it’s fun to send postcards from places like Omaha to my friends and family) and I no longer buy greeting cards pre-filled will greetings.
I mean, I’m a writer, I should be able to come up with a greeting! Ah, the care and feeding of the ego. I also enjoy writing and when it comes to cards, what better place to write from the heart?
Speaking about writing, it was your comment about wanting to learn more about writing that inspired my recommended books and then 11 Ways To Improve You Writing posts.
Writing is very tiresome and most people don’t realize that. I had to put my blog on hiatus for a bit so I could get to work on my other writing projects. I’ve learned to pace myself better and it seems to be working well.
Ricardo: I think fellow writers know how tiring it can be and can appreciate how much effort can actually go into a piece that “looks easy.” Your blog is very easy to read - a lot of thought and fun, too! I’ve read through some of your posts and thought, whoa, this musta took some time.
I think good writers make it look easy. You’re making it look easy!
[...] QMusings.com - The Queen of Musings is an up and coming blog I found through MyBlogLog. She’s been writing a lot about social issues, but the one that stuck out to me whether I can actually run out words to say. [...]
My wife would say that whether its blogging or email, each written word drains from the finite pie of communication I am capable of each day. Since blogging, my emails have not reduced in size, but my spoken words have dipped to [I will finish this tomorrow. My days allotment of words have been depleted]
Thank you MsQ, I appreciate that. No the posts are never easy and do indeed take a considerable amount of time to finish off and there’s not much time to begin with. As far as being easy to read, yes, I learned (from somewhere) that you should write on a 5th grade level technically and pack the substance of a grad students thesis if possible. The 5th grade writing is not to dumb things down but to make the reading quick and easy. The Wall Street Journal began using this tactic as it’s readership went down and it worked well for them. It’s all about the readability index thing. Glad you noticed that.
Digital Rich: Just make sure to save a few words for your family!
Ricardo: I’d never heard of that before - writing at the 5th grade level? Is that just for magazines and newspapers? I can see how that advice would hold true for the news and for something like celebrity magazines.
When I first started blogging, I automatically began writing in a different style: I began to write in the style *I* would find easier to read. When it comes to reading articles online, I found I didn’t like big chunks of words. Too difficult to digest! So I began to write 2-3 sentence paragraphs to give the readers a break. I later read how “lot of white space” makes for more readability.
It’s all a fine line and very subjective. I read blogs (like Digital Rich who just left a comment) and he is an excellent storyteller. I have no problem with his Big Chunks Of Words!
The 5th grade level rule is indeed used for magazines and newspapers and while it sounds like a dumbing down of things it’s really to allow for quick digestion since they now have to with so many other different types of mediums to get news. So they have to be quick and easy. The white space you speak of is also true. It creates the visual that things are open and it’s not as punishing on the eyes. It flows much smoother as you read it. That’s a rule that I was taught to follow when I work on my screenplays. And then of course there are always guys DigitalRich that can get away with writing big chunks of words because they have an excellent delivery. It’s all in finding the right balance and developing your sense of style. When you do that the rest seems to fall into place rather nicely.