*This essay was written entirely without the help of AI.

We live in a society where we solely rely on getting our information or entertainment from a 15-second video, or a couple of paragraphs on a post. We know this, and we have accepted our fate. However, I think we desperately need to change this.

Long-form content is something that we have long abandoned because our attention spans are now formatted to now only pay attention to things that are quick and easy. That being said, I think the reason we abandoned it isn’t solely because we enjoy short-form content better, but because short-form content typically tends to be presented better.

Just because of it’s presentation, though, doesn’t mean it is more insightful. In fact, we lose one very important piece when we summarize a video to fit into 15-seconds, and that very thing is full context. Us humans tend to desire a short gist without the effort of extensive research. William Zinsser, the author of On Writing Well, says that good writing does not just tell the information, but it also creates a unity of thought. Short-form writing consists mostly of pieces that are not related to each other and are written in a way that doesn’t come together easily to create something. Also, when a writer writes in long-form, it gives the writer the ability to present a complex idea from beginning to end as it develops with the reader, coming into an idea that feels unified.

Focusing only on short bursts means we lose all sense of the author feeling human. Zinsser points out that “the transaction” of writing (between writer and reader) is completely personal. Captions don’t create a relationship, but they create them through a narrative arc that allows for emotional connection and development.

With that being said, sometimes we still need to get more than one thought out of our heads at a time, to tie multiple ideas together into a larger idea. This is where clustering comes in. Clustering is a process that can help you connect, or cluster, all of the ideas that you want to use in your story. Writers do this by using a visual map to create a group of thoughts that can all be tied together into one larger story. By clustering, you will eliminate the clutter that Zinsser warns against, which means that each paragraph in your long-form piece should serve your main objective.

Lastly, we can’t forget that long-form is worth the effort to consume. By embracing the ups and downs of long-form writing, you will be able to develop depth of thought, to develop authentic connections and provide depth of value that cannot be captured in a 15-second post on social media.

Citations:

Zinsser, William. On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction. New York, Harperperennial, 2016.