Constant Content

I know many of us are still working on the March challenge and it's not yet April, but it's close enough to start thinking about our next exercise. This month's challenge is inspired by Ed's "Cut it Out" thread (http://www.constant-content.com/forum/v ... =4&t=14242). The goal: conciseness.

With that in mind, write a blog post of no more than 300 words. The word count limit forces us to go back and cut useless, redundant, or otherwise unnecessary words. It is also an appropriate word count for a blog post.

Don't be fooled into thinking a 300-word blog post is easy just because it's short. Let's fill our entries with useful, well-researched content. The blog post should be relevant and contain an intro, body, and a logical conclusion. Let's make every word count. Don't worry if your first draft is over the word limit; simply go back and cut, cut, cut. Feel free to post a "before and after" sentence if you're particularly proud of the words you cut!

The winners: We all win.

The losers: No one will ever lose one of these challenges. Anyone who joins the fun is an automatic winner.

The judges: As always, our articles must make it past Ed, and the customer is the ultimate judge (after all, customers buy our work). However, a few kind words from fellow challengers are always welcome.

Who's in? I know Emma (aka eek) is in. Me too. Who else?

I'm in. (Is that a concise answer?)

Hayley

P.S. Still working on the March challenge, but I'll get there!

Me too!

Shouldn't a challenge involving being concise only last half a month? ;)

(I think "Me too" is too wordy.)


In!

LOL (Is that better?)

I just submitted my first 350-word blog for the challenge. First draft was 391 words. Second was 348. THat's a net decrease of 43 words. I actually cut it down to 330 words on the first run-through. This gave me room to expand a section :) It took about 10 minutes of trimming and revising.
*** Edited with an update: I think I'm going to pull the article and remove/condense a few of the examples and work in additional information. It's a challenge after all! While I'm happy with the piece as it is, I want to live up to the challenge and reduce redundancy. I think the blog is too heavy on examples for its size, so it's back to the drawing board for me.***

I saw that geniuswaitress has a 300-word blog entry up about Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Cool! Who knew you could cover so much in just 300 words?

It was longer on the first draft! I appreciated the challenge of cutting it down.

Thanks, Celeste. I appreciate these monthly challenges. They keep the juices flowing!

Glad to hear the challenges help. I try to challenge myself each month (though I don't always manage it) which is why I thought it would be a fun group project.

I did revamp my blog entry since my post above, cutting probably a third more (I think I was down to about 250 words or so after the ax) and then adding additional info. I like this particular challenge because the original article (at about 400 words) was just fine; however, by going through with word count and conciseness in mind, I was able to trim it without losing any actual content. This allowed me to add more information. I have one little sentence/short paragraph/aside that I'm thinking would be nice to add, but there comes a point where you have to move on. Besides, that particular idea sounds like a whole different blog entry (coming soon!). I think blog entries require a tighter focus than articles. I'm not sure though as I don't generally do blogs. What do you guys think?

I had a project a while back for writing device driver articles of at least 350 words, but the customer didn't want any information about fixing problems, where to get drivers, or how to reinstall faulty ones. I was having a hard time meeting the word count.

On the reverse side, I do sometimes have trouble keeping on track. I'll start writing an article which could go in fifty directions. My usual routine is to write the big article in half an hour or less (depending on the subject), and then spend the next day cutting out the stray sentences. I'm even worse about writing a paragraph about a subject, moving on, and then hitting the same subject from a different angle later in the piece. Those are the worst because you have to change the paragraphs which follow.

Have fun with this everyone. If I get a chance, I'll certainly try.

LOL, better late than never. I just submitted my entry for last month's challenge :) The kidney infection and subsequent hospital hang out totally hijacked my end of month.

Let's see if I can get this one done before May. :)

Hi,

I haven't worked on the conciseness challenge yet. However, I just had some practice in cutting out words. I wrote a response to a forum post which was 2881 characters when I first submitted it. It took several attempts to cut it back to the 2000 characters allowed. I know I could have posted the response in two submissions, but it was good practice for the conciseness challenge. Just 300 words is a big challenge for someone who writes 800 words average length articles.

Hayley

Hi all,

I submitted my blog entry over the weekend and now have to wait until it gets reviewed. That could be a while because I have also submitted many articles for requests, so apologies to Ed for the pile of articles waiting for review. I had a couple of customers request the articles for the end of the month.


My original blog was 569 words and then I reviewed the blog entry several times to cut it down to 300 words. I enjoyed this challenge as it really made me think about word usage. Any ideas for a May challenge?

Hayley

Good morning, Hayley! Congrats on the blog entry. It's amazing to see how much space we waste with those extra words and redundant thoughts, isn't it? What I love is cutting the article down and then adding more (different) information. Doing so is a service to the reader. Got to keep that in mind as I start my week.

I've been using Twitter and the 140 character limit helps with word choice! I try to avoid the "U,2?" shortcuts and pick my words carefully. Suze Orman actually responded to a question that I twittered to her yesterday which was really cool :)

May starts on Friday - yikes! How about a Shining Short Summaries challenge? I jotted that idea down after Ed's post earlier this month reminding us all to give more thought to our short summaries. I know that I don't give them the attention they deserve. I usually fill them out after I enter my prices rather than approaching them as an important part of the article.

I submitted my 300-word blog entry for the conciseness challenge on Friday. Like Hayley, I'm awaiting Ed's approval. I didn't have to cut quite as much as you did Hayley, because I began with a narrower focus than I normally choose, so kudos on finding 269 words to kick out. I recently entered an article at 450 words which, when I made the first 3 revisions, wanted to remain at 600 words. That piece was harder to tighten up than the blog.

I'll second the short summary challenge suggestion for May. Summaries can be more difficult than the article itself. How do you suggest we go about this, Celeste, since every submission requires a short summary? Perhaps everyone participating can paste their better short summaries in the forum?
Emma