The Vast Sea of Article Writing

I've been writing quite a few articles lately, many for various content writing sites. One of them is closing shop for a while, though, so I'll be writing a bit less keyword-based content, and that's prodded me to put a few queries out there to some magazines and websites that are not all about keywords & search engine optimization content. Don't get me wrong, writing that sort of content can be fast and fun, but I would like to get more of my writing out beyond those places. No limits!

Last night (Monday) I wrote a creative piece. I was SO happy as I poured my heart into it, and to see that I ended up at just around 500 words without even trying. I looked to the writing guidelines of the magazine where I wish to submit it. They have two options: a daily inspiration, and a weekly inspiration. For the daily one they require a word count of 150-250 words long; for the weekly one they require 350-500 words.

Amazing. Absolutely amazing. With content writing I usually find myself at a loss for words, and attempt to create a 600 word article out of 300 words, stretching it with minor details and lots of keywords. Last night I did the opposite. I tried to shape 500 words into 250.

Originally I had intended my piece for the daily inspiration, so I edited and edited, and managed to get it down to 400 words. I thought "This would be good for the weekly inspiration," but then decided to try and see just how short and concise I could get it. I managed to edit it down to 249 words, perfect for the daily inspiration. In fact, I now realize that the first version was quite wordy. The second one, well, I'm going to try for the weekly inspiration first, and if that spot has been filled, I will submit the shorter version for the daily inspiration.

Ah, the vast sea of differences between content writing and other-article writing! I think I'll swim out a little further. :o)