Which one worked better for you? Choosing quantity or quality?
Before answering this question, I will share what are the basic criterias for writing good articles, at least to me.
Firstly, writing quality matters, so that should not be comprised.
Writing quality includes valuable or engaging content, good phrasing of sentences, grammar, and spelling, and well-selected images that fit the written topic or complement it.
Secondly, writing on topics that are important and meaningful to you matters too.
Topics that you are passionate about, those that you tend to think about the most, and hits you close to home whenever it pops up in your thoughts.
To me, the topics that I tend to write about presents themselves in a few categories such as personal development, writing, financial independence, parenting and motherhood, women empowerment, child development, sustainable environment, and social topics such as poverty and education. It can get quite extensive as I have many topics of interest.
But not all written content carries the same weight and effort. Some can take 30 minutes to write, and others take up to a few hours.
What’s more, some of my more lengthy and serious topics on mental illness, materialism, or about navigating and overcoming personal fears tend to get fewer views than some other topics on writing, parenting young children, or those about my Medium journey.
Some of my shorter light-hearted posts that took 30 minutes to write sometimes get the same amount of views and engagement.
If you are like me, who have young children and full-time work to attend to, you would not have the time to write daily good content and long articles, you have to choose to write less or write shorter posts.
That’s where I also joined publications like The Shortform which accepts a max of 150-word stories that can be written relatively fast and can get engagement and views as long as your content and topics are relevant.
So what is my conclusion?
I try to strike a balance. Do both if you can.
On some days, I write shorter ‘ ad-hoc ‘ articles from the list of topics that run through my head during the day, and on other days I choose to spend the time to sit down and write a long article on a heavier topic.
My minimum pre-requisite is that the written content should add value to my readers, be it sharing new insight and information, open questions about a hot topic, or even light-hearted humor. Again, my personal rules for what is considered good writing above still apply as well. I wrote also about my method to achieve more writing with limited time below, a useful skill that should be developed over time as you mature as a writer.
With this, I say onwards with writing, long or short form, and try to be consistent.