For years, the rule of thumb for anything you post online had been "keep it short and sweet." Videos had to be less than 2 minutes, blog posts had to be a couple paragraphs maximum, even legitimate news organizations had been shaving down their online articles to keep pace with our short attention spans.
Here's the problem...I talk a lot, I admit it. And if I really get into a story, it tends to turn into something resembling a novel more than a blog post.
Normally, those long-winded blog posts would have me concerned that my readers might get bored and move on halfway through a story. But just like we saw a cultural shift from longer newspaper-style articles to short Twitter-esque posts, we are now seeing the pendulum swing a little more the other way with a renewed focus on lengthier stories.
One innovation we have to thank for this is the rise of bookmarking apps and websites like Instapaper and Evernote that allow people to easily bookmark stories to read later. The way they work is simple; you see an article you like but don't have time to read it (or are working and shouldn't read it) so you send the link to one of these services and you can read them from your computer or smartphone when you have the time.
I've been using both Instapaper and Evernote for a few weeks now and it's been great for me as a reader, but they are even more important to me as a writer, That's because they open the door for me and every other blogger out there to write more in-depth. The reality is that it's extremely difficult to analyze anything in two or three paragraphs, and this emerging trend of social bookmarking alleviates the pressure.
So there you have it, a long-winded post about how it's okay to write long-winded posts.
