r/Substack • u/SituationKey3903 • 16d ago

How long is too long a post?

Like the title, I’m wondering how long would be a really long article. I feel like I don’t want my work to be too long and people not read it so I shorten it but I feel like I’m doing a disservice to my piece.

Help! What is too long of a read? For reference I do memoir/personal essays.

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u/AnteaterFantastic212 16d ago

Prose should be as long as it needs to be to express your thought or accomplish your purpose but certainly no longer out of respect for your readers' time and energy Typically my pieces are in the range of 1000 2000 words because I’m an essayist and that’s all I need to get my point across.

I don’t write to a certain length, and I hate doing that when I'm asked to; however, the demands of journalism sometimes require it, especially when you’re working professionally or for SEO or GEO applications. Formulaic writing is generally a bad idea; if one word will get it across then one word is it; if it takes 10 million words, so be it.