Snack or Feast on Substack?

How to decide if your idea should be a post or a note

Hey there,

Thanks so much for having me in your inbox. This week’s post is by

Harrison Moore

of The New Workday, a publication about thinking creatively and writing nonfiction.

Harrison has been publishing advice for two years on Substack, taking a scientific approach to the craft of non-fiction writing. I think you’ll enjoy his systematic approach to deciding whether to turn an idea into a bite-sized snippet or an essay. Over to you, Harrison.

“Most books should just be articles. Most articles should just be blog posts. And most blog posts should just be tweets.” – Joe Weisenthal

Recently a fellow Substacker said, "How do you handle small tidbits of writing? Small ideas that excite you but don't warrant a whole essay. Do you find a way to turn them into essays anyway? Or do you just share them as Notes?”

It's a good question. And I realised it's one of those decisions I’ve been making on auto-pilot with no plan.

But having a loose plan is useful, especially if it prevents you from overlooking ideas deserving of more attention, stops you wasting time on ideas that aren’t worth it, and helps your ideas achieve a better message-medium fit.

I reckon there are at least nine different criteria you could use to decide whether to make your ideas snackable (as Notes) or feastable (as longer pieces):

1) Length. The most obvious clue is word count. If it’s short, then why not make it a Note? Having said that, I have seen writers (eg, Seth Godin, Tim Urban) publish great blog posts that are just a few lines. I've also seen essay-length Notes too, but IMO those don't work; they tend to come across like a square peg in a round hole.

2) Topic. Does your idea have a timeless quality that readers may want to return to? If so, you’ll want to avoid Notes so the algorithm can’t relegate it to the past. Or should your topic only be shared in Notes because it’s perishable, or because you think the topic area is quite saturated already (like AI, for example)?

3) Reach. Relatedly, how important is it for your entire audience to see the idea? If it’s unimportant, then Notes should be fine. But if you want it seen by everyone, then write a proper blog post.

4) Urgency. How quickly do you wanna get your idea out into the blogosphere? If it's time-sensitive like a story from a sports event, then surely it’s gotta be a Note. But if it's something you want to linger over, then choose the blog post form.

5) Seriousness. Do you believe the topic is serious enough, or you’re serious enough about it, to warrant the effort needed to write something in-depth? Related to this is playfulness. Are you looking for a significant outcome or just fooling around?

6) Conviction. How sure are you of the idea? If you're convinced beyond belief, then perhaps a Note will do. Whereas, an essay can be more exploratory, inviting inquiry from your readers because it deals with ideas you're not completely sure about.

7) Complexity. Is it simple or multifaceted? Notes are great for sharing ideas that readers can grasp at a glance. But if it’s chess, not drafts, then you may want to start a Google Doc (tip: doc.new). Of course, the more we think about something, the more complex it becomes, so point 7 might be more useful when it’s paired with point 8.

8) Enthusiasm. How excited are you to pursue the idea down a rabbit hole? If it's kinda cool…but…you just wanna get on with your life, then a Note should suffice. But if you're like, "Wait a minute, this is interesting, I need to look into that more," then it sounds like the heady beginnings of a longer-form piece.

9) Validation. This works best if you've got a decent-sized audience or followership. You can share Notes as a way to test the interestingness of ideas, and then double-down on the ones that get the most engagement. This way, your validated Notes can become battle-tested essays.

Of course, you don’t have to share any of your ideas if you prefer to let them simmer. But I do believe your life will become more interesting once you get around to sharing them.

What do you think about these criteria? Are they useful? Do you use other ones? Or do you think they’re an over-engineered solution to a problem that doesn’t exist? I’d be keen to get your thoughts if you’re up for sharing.

Thanks for reading, and thanks Karen for letting me guest-post. I’m an artist and Mentor at Write of Passage, my Substack is about thinking creatively, and I share craft essays, lists and prompts for writers like you—subscribe if you like.

Harrison 🙋‍♂️

PS I shared this idea first as a Note, which got some decent engagement, so I used points 1, 2, 8 and 9 to decide to write this longer piece.

PPS If anyone’s up for channelling the Weisenthalian spirit of turning this post back into a Note, feel free to have a go in the comments. I’d love to see what you come up with.

Thanks,

Harrison Moore

for sharing your process for choosing whether an idea should become a long post or a just a Note.

See you next week, everyone!