A Field Guide to the Long Post

I've written a few hundred long posts and edited a few hundred more, and I keep noticing that the good ones are built from the same small set of parts. This is a field guide to those parts: what each one looks like, what it's for, and the habitats where it doesn't belong. Everything in it is also an example of itself, so you can check my work as you go.

Headings: the trail markers

A heading is a promise about the next stretch of ground. Two to five of them is plenty for a post of this length. More than that and the piece starts to feel like a set of leaflets stapled together.

Good headings tell you something. "Background" tells you nothing. "Why the first draft was the wrong size" tells you what's coming and lets a skimmer decide whether to stop. If I can read only the headings and still follow the argument in outline, they're doing their job.

Common mistake: a heading used to hide a weak transition. If a section needs a bold label because the paragraphs don't connect, fix the paragraphs.

The pull quote: one sentence, lifted

A quotation set apart from the text is a place to rest the eye, and a way to say the one thing a reader should carry out the door.

A long post is a short post that earned its length, one section at a time.

Use a pull quote when a sentence is both true and quotable, and use it sparingly. One per post is usually right. Two starts to feel like a magazine feature. Five, and the writing has gone ornamental. If I can't find a line worth lifting, that tells me something about the draft, not about the quote.

Lists: the steps, not the thoughts

A list is for things that really are separate and parallel. Steps in an order. Items to check. A set of options. It is not for thoughts that need each other, because a list strips the connections, and then the reader has to rebuild them.

Here's the test I run, as a numbered list because the order matters:

1. Could the items be shuffled without harm? If yes, a bulleted list is fine.

2. Does each item make sense on its own? If not, it belongs in a paragraph.

3. Is there a "because" hiding between any two items? Write that out as a sentence.

4. Would I read this aloud to a friend? If I'd say it naturally, it's probably prose.

Three to seven items is the comfortable range. Past that, I start looking for the groups hiding inside.

The table: when you're comparing

Tables are the hardest part to use well, because they look authoritative even when the content is thin. A table earns its place when the reader needs to compare several things along the same few dimensions. If there's only one dimension, it's a list wearing a costume.

Here's the one I use to plan a long post of around 1,500 words. It's my own rough rule, not a law, and I break it whenever the material asks me to.

The numbers matter less than the habit of asking whether each part has a job. A middle that is twice the length of everything else is usually two posts.

Putting it together

Notice that none of these parts is decoration. Headings guide, the quote rests the eye, the list sequences, the table compares. When one of them stops doing its job, I take it out and see whether the post gets worse. Usually it doesn't.

The last thing in the field guide is the thing I forget most often: a long post still has to be read by one person at a time. Write for them, and the structure mostly takes care of itself.