Small writing on Medium is Large
The perfect read-time of Medium articles and how it affects my reading and writing.
When you scan through articles on Medium, what helps you determine which articles to read? Do you look at the Title? Do you look at the Featured Image? What about the amount of time that it would take to read the article? Ding, ding, ding!
I tend to breeze through the titles, take a quick glance at the Featured Image, notice the time it will take to read the article, and then decide if the amount of time to read the article is worth the reading commitment. This may seem a little cold and calculating, but don’t you do the same thing? I would suspect I’m not alone in this calculative investment process.
Not only does this help me contemplate what I’m going to read, it also makes me consider the length of my own articles when I’m writing. I want my writing to be in consumable pieces that viewers will consider reading.
This spurs on an argument in my head — finally putting those extra voices to use — about whether I’m writing for others or if I’m writing for myself.
“You should write shorter articles so that people will read them,” annoying, high-pitched needy voice.
“You should write longer articles to cleanse the inner-demons from your mind!” resounding, low-pitched commanding voice.
“You should write medium-length articles to satisfy your readers and to encourage yourself to write more impactful stories,” encouraging, medium-pitched and confident voice (ironically sounds closer to my real voice).
Most importantly, I wish that the voices could just get along.
I’ve found that articles in the three- to four-minute range are easy commitments for me. This length of article is usually an easy read for me. If the title and feature image are on-point — by on-point I mean that they pique my personal interest — and the article is less than five minutes, I grab my digital fork and consume it.
The interesting thing is that when it comes to longer articles, I have a little bit of a cavalier attitude about reading it. It’s almost as if I’m thinking, “This better be good!”
Committing to a longer article gives me another level of expectation. When I transfer this over to my own writing, it makes me grateful for those fewer readers that take the plunge into those articles.
I recently wrote an article titled “Crime, Punishment and Accountability.” This piece is a seven-minute read. In my eyes, when I see someone commit to reading this I have a different level of appreciation. It’s not that I don’t appreciate those that read my shorter articles (thank you for that!), it’s just that I consider my own thoughts about reading other writer’s articles of the same length. Not only that, I had someone clap and comment on the article and make some wonderful observations (thanks, Alison E Rogers). This meant a lot to me.
So for the sake of trying to keep this article short enough for a semi-committed read for you, I will leave it in your competent hands and ask, was it worth the read? Was it worth the commitment? Does it make you think about your own writing?
