Friday, June 30, 2006
Longwindedness
One of my favorite writers is The Sports Guy, who writes on ESPN.com’s Page 2. I try to read him as much as possible, which isn’t always easy because he’s very long-winded. The Sports Guy routinely writes 2000-word columns. In fact, for his NBA draft diaries or NBA previews, he’ll go over 4000 words.
The Sports Guy also writes for ESPN the Magazine. He was limited to 800 words. He pushed for 2000. After 3 years, they finally upped it to 1200 words. He’s upset about this because he feels that he can’t develop a clear thought in that few words.
Meanwhile, I’m lucky if I can ever break 800 words. It’s hard coming up with that much to write about. You have to really find something that interests you. You also have to be willing to go off on wild-ass tangents for awhile.
I remember telling The Wife that I don’t think I’d ever get up to 1200 words in one of my blogs because I just didn’t have anything to write that much about. Then Sleater-Kinney broke up and I decided to do a retrospective on their albums. 3400 words later, I’ve got a nice long entry that nobody will ever read. Well, that’s okay because I thoroughly enjoyed writing it. I’m hoping to have longer entries in the future, but it’s not easy for me to write every day, let alone writing something lengthy. (And it’s harder yet to write something interesting. Perhaps I should focus on that first. Nah.)
The Sports Guy also writes for ESPN the Magazine. He was limited to 800 words. He pushed for 2000. After 3 years, they finally upped it to 1200 words. He’s upset about this because he feels that he can’t develop a clear thought in that few words.
Meanwhile, I’m lucky if I can ever break 800 words. It’s hard coming up with that much to write about. You have to really find something that interests you. You also have to be willing to go off on wild-ass tangents for awhile.
I remember telling The Wife that I don’t think I’d ever get up to 1200 words in one of my blogs because I just didn’t have anything to write that much about. Then Sleater-Kinney broke up and I decided to do a retrospective on their albums. 3400 words later, I’ve got a nice long entry that nobody will ever read. Well, that’s okay because I thoroughly enjoyed writing it. I’m hoping to have longer entries in the future, but it’s not easy for me to write every day, let alone writing something lengthy. (And it’s harder yet to write something interesting. Perhaps I should focus on that first. Nah.)
