Brevity, Brevity — My Kingdom for Some Brevity!

01 / The Ideas Book

I have a lot of ideas. My Ideas Book contains a graphic novel, pieces of prose—one novel (with four more brewing), a comedy, a sci-fi anthology, and two modernisations of nineteenth-century histories of the West Country.

There are two business ideas. A character waiting for a story. An adventure game. Two IT security projects (an app and a platform), and… oh yes, a YouTube series about writing Domain Specific Languages. And a full-time job. And this website about crafting Domain Specific Languages.

02 / What do I need more words for?

My Ideas Book is where I jot big ideas down. Google Docs is where my short ideas and fully worked-out prose live. But do I really need to “fully work out” ideas for articles?

I have a lot of experience and ideas, so I started creating placeholder articles. Then I wondered: what do I need more words for?

03 / Padding serves the word count

Writers get paid by the word. Editors have a quarter-page to fill. Sometimes there’s nothing much to say, so it gets spun out. Sometimes the point never arrives. Sometimes it’s sophistry: confuse the reader sufficiently and an unreasonable argument starts sounding reasonable.

Padding serves the word count. It doesn’t necessarily serve the reader.

04 / So no.

These “Articles in Preparation” are already the articles: the bare bones an idea needs. They get to the point quickly. You can think about an idea for as long as you want. Or not.

05 / AI is my accelerant

AI is my accelerant here. If you’re an anti-AI purist, just know I wrote most of this text. I’ve written and corrected it five times. AI has polished and published it.

06 / Continue the conversation

Brevity doesn’t mean I’m not interested in what you disagree with. Disagreement tests ideas. If you want to debate or engage with me, use the comments on CraftSyntax’s Substack. You’ll need to join Substack first.

07 / That Is All.

That’s it on word counts. Byeeeeeeee.