How can I stop writing such long answers?

I was taught to make my point on the first sentence and then support it after.

Start writing. When you have written considerably less than you normally do, stop.

When I choose to answer, I take time to trim the my answers to the point of readability. If I don’t think I have time to make the answer short enough, I usually abstain.

wait for people to ask you questions (why, when, how, etc)

Ask the number of characters be specified in the “guidelines”.

Shoot for three paragraphs and out.

Also, edit, edit, edit.

Request that your IP be banned from the server. That’ll pretty much do it.

How to stop long answers? Use SHORTHAND (get it? Long answers, “SHORT” hand?)

Don’t stop – we love your long answers!

But if you really want to shorten them, editing is key – mine are often as long as yours to start out, and then I edit out 2/3 of them, so I’m left with a few key sentences…

Daloon, your long answers are something that make you you. I don’t always read the whole thing, but I appreciate the thought you put into your answers. Why stop?

Write as much as you want to; then copy and paste into your private journal. Do not hit “send” until you have done some serious editing. But that is my personal opinion only.

I generally read your answers, long as they might be. Make sure you don’t say the same thing more than once, but other than that, keep ‘em long.

@gailcalled and others who suggest editing: it would be nice to have the time to edit. I have to do my editing on the fly, or there will be no editing. I could say more, but let me stop here. ;-)

I love your long answers, daloon. I wish I could write long, thoughtful things like that. But my thoughts get all jumbled and I wind up summarizing instead of saying everything I want to. Most of the time I don’t even end up posting my answers at all because I get frustrated that I’m not able to express myself the way I’d like to.

@daloon:: See what a quick study you are. Someone (I’m too lazy to find the quote) said something to the effect that “If I had had more time, I would have made it shorter.” I find that has and does work for me.

@departed

lol…bitter, bitter…

The key is condense. I am capable of writing pretty long-winded answers, but I attempt to simplify with most of them. If I can take 1 sentence to say the same thing in 3, then I’ll go with the 1. Sure, 3 might be more expansive, but I think that most of the time, much of what we say can be said in less words.

I aim to respond only to what I need to, my natural style is to be concise regardless.
I would suggest you impose a character limit on yourself, to force a rewrite until it’s acceptable.

Realize that, if left unchecked, this tendency could cause you to develop a full-blown case of dalepetriism.

You can’t. You just have to learn to accept it. I have.

I agree with Darwin. A nice long thread is great but even among those we have to be able to edit. Also, I think it’s not so much the length of the post as much as it’s the number of salient points that can be responded to by others. It’s about the intercourse.

just write… i think those who might not want to read the entire post can get the jist of what you’re writing quickly and if they’re interested can read more slowly. I like the variety of length, humor, seriousness, etc. here.

Well said.

Or you can always write as per paragraph a. sec 2 sub/3 part A-2 refers to the subordinate clause which of course expresses that the heretofore wording which in no way implies that the following text is anything other than an exigent expansion on the ideas that filled my subconscious at said point in heretofore mentioned prior post but which are in fact the result of an excessive…....

←immitate

Try texting your respond on your phone. When you finish the characters in the first message, your will be do…

i don’t always read long answers, but i usually at least read the first half of them in most cases. try to make sure the points you consider most important are earlier in it, and then feel free to continue for however many paragraphs you wish. even if i don’t get through an entire long answer, i appreciate that the person put that much time, and usually care, into writing a response. besides, it feels good to get your entire answer out, and not feel like there’s still more you want to add. (:

I read almost all of your long answers (and Dale’s too). It’s just a part of you! If you are truly concerned about getting everyone to read to the end, then you’re going to have to edit. Write all you want, and consider it a first draft. Cut, cut, cut, then post. :)

Yeah don’t stop.. I know I kidded you about it before.. but don’t. =D

maybe if we all wrote longer answers that would make you feel better? ...no?

Think of your main points. Write them all out in 3–4 concise sentences. Stop. This isn’t a writing course so you don’t have to have follow any rules of writing. It doesn’t have to flow.

I like your answers, too, and hope you will continue to expound to the extent you see fit. Not everything we think can be compounded into a few sentences or even three paragraphs. Rock on, man!

you shouldn`t it just shows that you are wise!

One of the new issues is that with the latest surge, I am getting 75–90 queries per day, as opposed to the much smaller number in earlier days. That is neither good nor bad, but it does limit what I read, after the topic sentence. Life is too short now that spring has finally come.

I tend to read more when people use complete sentences and proper punctuation so that I am not blinded by run-on sentences. (Not referring to you, Dal.)

It looks like a lot of people are assuming a direct correlation between length and thoughtfulness. I find that a lot of times it takes more thoughtfulness to keep an answer short. If an answer is too long, I will often skip it or skim over it quickly, feeling less of an obligation to give the person’s answer very much time when they were not willing (or perhaps able) to take the time to make it shorter. Granted, I have seen some very good long answers (and I know for a fact that some of them were from daloon). But a lot of times it just looks lazy to me.

@gailcalled I was thinking of that quote, too. It’s one of those widely attributed quotes. I’ve heard Lincoln, Pascal, Jefferson, Mark Twain, Cicero, and probably more.

@aidje: Pascal gets the most votes. TS Eliot is also mentioned somewhere. This is from Ask.com;

Who Said, “If I Had More Time, I Would Have Written You a Shorter Letter”?

Tuesday January 8, 2008

“There are many popular answers. I have found this quotation being attributed to Hemingway, Cicero, Voltaire, Mark Twain, and Blaise Pascal. Until recently, I felt that this was Twain’s work. But now I am fairly convinced that this is Blaise Pascal’s work.”

Oh, look.
Everyone said it; Gauss, Thoreau, Nietzsche, Shakespeare, RL Stevenson had their versions.

Dec. 1656: Lettres Provinciales, n 16: Je n’ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parceque je n’ai pas eu le loisir
de la faire plus courte.

And then there’s Joyce, “write as if each word cost you a shilling.”

So, is there any really good writer (who is still read) who did not say it?

I suspect neither George Eliot nor Charles Dickens said it; I doubt that either considered brevity a virtue.

Charles Dickens was writing serials to go into the weekly newspapers. In his case, the more words the better because it gave him more installments to sell.

Email me all of your proposed responses, and for $10 each I will cut them all in half. I can’t guarantee they will still make sense or even convey an coherent point, but I’m will to give it a shot if you are.

@daloon: For $8, I’ll do it and give you a guarantee. xox, Gail

(Sorry, Supersqueaky, but times are hard now.)

@gailcalled so you picked up on the fact that I purposely of course made that quip incoherent and difficult to understand in order to get my point across?

@daloon, go with Gail, I know when I’ve been outbid.

@SuperMouse : I’m willing to go into partnership with you. $9?

@gailcalled, you’ve got a deal.

@Daloon; If you’re still paying attention, sign here….................. and give us your SSS # here…................ and your PIN here….................

@Daloon, and don’t forget to have that notarized.

I don’t think you should stop, because I also enjoy all of the time, effort and thought that you put into things. It’s a rare thing… And I truly admire it.

I myself have a hard time giving short answers once in a while. I know the asker may not appreciate all of the effort and thought I put into answers, but you know what? Maybe they will. So, when it comes down to it, I keep my long answers long, just in case…

Ack! How long has it been since I’ve been here? My message queue was up to 100, and even though other people write shorter answers, it still takes a while for me to get through, even skimming.

Gail and Supermouse are on staff now. You can start with my first answers, and any of them longer than one paragraph should be pared down. You will cut them all in half, correct?

I’m a little concerned, though. SuperMouse has promised enhanced obscurity, while Gail… well I don’t know what she is promising. Will you two be able to work together without sending viruses to each other’s computers?

Well, on to my next opus.

William Strunk said it best:

“Vigorous writing is concise”

There once was a fellow named Stan
Whose poems just wouldn’t scan
“The trouble” said he
“Is easy to see
I always try to get as many words in the last line as I can.”

Well, I think we now know what stopped him.

Read what you write. Pretend you are a stupid lunk and imagine how your piece sounds to him/her. I find that I can write about two or three sentences before I decide “That sux,” and rewrite part or all of it.