When writing blogs, less is more

Larry Ingrassia, the business editor of the New York Times, recently quoted two opening paragraphs from front-page stories on 1987's "Black Monday" in response to a reader's question.

The first was from Gray Lady herself: "Stock market prices plunged in a tumultuous wave of selling yesterday, giving Wall Street its worst day in history and raising fears of a recession." (Whew.)

The second was from the Wall Street Journal: "The stock market crashed yesterday." (Perfect.)

'Black Monday,' 1987

To appreciate the concision of the latter, some context is in order. On Oct. 19, 1987, journalists everywhere were glued to their TV sets, watching the financial carnage unfold (including yours truly, at the Washington Bureau of the L.A. Times). By the time the Dow had plummeted 22 percent at the closing bell, reporters were falling over themselves to capture the enormity of the history they had just witnessed.

What resulted were "leads" (newspaper lingo for first paragraphs) that were larded with all manner of verbiage and hyperbole--except the Journal's, which said so much with so little.

Therein lies our writing lesson for the day: Less is more. And nowhere is that truer in blogs, where 500 words is considered Tolstoy.

As Andrew wrote the other day, there's already more than enough noise in the echo chamber as it is. To make a worthy contribution, therefore, it means you need to be a ruthless editor of your own copy. So below are a few points to consider on that score.

• Short isn't superficial. The most effective sentences need few qualifiers or "hedging." That's because they're often written by people who can write and speak authoritatively in simple declarative sentences on the subjects at hand. Keep your adjectives and adverbs to a minimum so that, when you do use them, they have maximum effect; otherwise they'll just dilute the point.
• Overthinking is a sin. Over the years in various newsrooms, I've developed an "80/20 rule" while supervising editors who have a tendency to go overboard in rewriting their reporters' work. If you've accomplished 80 percent of what you want in a story, I'd tell them, let the other 20 percent go--you'll be the only one who will notice the difference. The same is true for your blogging.
• Restraint is a virtue. One of my first editors once told me that almost any news stories longer than 10 column inches (about 400 words) are essentially padded. That number is debatable, of course, but it's still a good idea to draw a horizontal line somewhere on your Word page or whatever software you use as a red zone that warns when you're approaching un-bloglike lengths. This will train you to "think shorter" and, eventually, help limit your research beforehand so you don't end up with more material than you need.

A Mozart concerto and a Barry Bonds swing have one thing in common: They both seem effortless yet are deceptively complex. That's the ultimate achievement in writing as well--beauty in simplicity.

By the way, those Ingrassia quotes came on the 10th page of his online piece in the Times. I happened to come upon it quite by accident in researching that Journal story to make sure I quoted it correctly.

Please don't make your readers wade through anywhere near that much stuff.