A useful blog post doesn’t have to contain everything you know. Include what this reader needs to do what the post promises. Other material may be useful, but it can pull this article away from the question you’re answering.
The practical question isn’t, "Is this point interesting?" Ask, "What would break if I removed it?" If the answer, decision, or next step still works, move the point out of this draft.
Write the post's one job in plain language
Before cutting anything, finish this sentence:
> When this post is finished, the reader should be able to ___.
Use a result you could recognize. "Understand blogging better" is too loose. "Choose which of three draft ideas to write first" gives you a boundary.
This is narrower than choosing an audience. You can write for one clear reader and still try to solve five of that person's problems at once. If the reader isn’t clear yet, start by choosing one reader before you outline. Then give this particular post one job for that reader.
Give every section a reason to stay
Write the job of each planned section beside its heading. A section may need to:
- explain the direct answer;
- remove a misunderstanding that would block the answer;
- show how to make the decision;
- demonstrate the method;
- identify an important limit; or
- help the reader recognize whether the step worked.
If two sections have the same job, combine them or decide which one does it better. If a section has no job, don’t keep it just because the writing is polished.
This doesn’t mean every article should be short. Some answers require definitions, evidence, examples, exceptions, and a procedure. Ask whether the detail helps the reader complete the task, rather than whether it makes the article longer.
Use the removal question
For every doubtful paragraph, temporarily delete it and ask three questions:
- Does the reader lose something needed to understand the answer?
- Does the reader lose a step needed to act or decide?
- Does the deletion create a misleading impression or hide an important boundary?
If all three answers are no, the paragraph probably belongs somewhere else.
Notice what this test protects. It doesn’t cut detail simply because detail takes space. It cuts detail that has no effect on the promised outcome. A careful warning may stay. A clever story that delays the answer may go.
Make a parking lot with a destination
Moving a passage to a notes file can feel like abandoning work you wanted to use. Write down where it might help instead.
Label each saved point as one of these:
- a follow-up post;
- an example for another article;
- background research;
- a source worth retaining; or
- material that is simply not useful enough yet.
You aren’t promising to publish every saved idea. You’re making an honest decision about the current article without pretending the other material never existed.
If the draft contains two complete promises, use the two-promise test for splitting one post into two instead of squeezing both into one outline.
Check the edges, not just the middle
Drift often enters through the introduction and conclusion. An introduction may explain the entire history of the topic before answering the reader. A conclusion may introduce a new lesson because the writer wants a stronger ending.
Read the first and last three paragraphs against the one-job sentence. The opening should bring the reader into that job. The ending should complete it or give the next logical step. Neither end should quietly create a second article.
Run the one-job boundary pass
On the final pass, write the post's job at the top of a working copy. Then move through the draft section by section.
For each section, mark:
- the part of the job it performs;
- what the reader would lose without it; and
- whether another section already performs that function.
Don’t reward a section for effort already spent. Reward it for helping this reader reach this result.
Leaving something out is not the same as making the article thin. A thin article stops before the reader can understand or act. A focused article completes one useful job and refuses to make the reader carry unrelated material along the way.
