Many people who are thinking about writing a nonfiction book already write—often blog posts or articles for their business—and they do those pieces very well. What they come to realize when working on a book is that short-form writing and long-form writing are two distinct disciplines.
Short-form content—blog posts, articles, and other pieces under a few thousand words—is designed to be read in one sitting. Long-form writing—in-depth research papers, white papers, and books—develops ideas over many thousands of words. Without adjusting for this difference, a book can end up feeling choppy—more like a collection of disconnected blog posts.
In this article, we’ll look at some of the primary differences between long-form and short-form writing, and I’ll offer some tips for making the transition from blog to book.
Short-form versus long-form writing
Every book needs its own structure to suit the content, but generally a book should feel different from a blog post. Let’s do a compare-and-contrast…
Purpose
People read different writing forms with different intent. Think of a short story versus a novel. In the former, you expect something insightful, evocative, or pithy that you can read in one sitting. In the latter, you often want immersion—to become lost in a different world for a longer time. The short story focuses on concision; the novel, on drawing the reader in.
Blog posts and nonfiction books follow a similar pattern. With blog posts, readers are looking for information in a concise, scannable form (especially since prolonged reading on a monitor strains the eyes). With books, readers are typically looking for greater depth of information, and they anticipate spending more than a few moments skimming it. This difference in reader expectations shapes how you write and organize short- versus long-form work.
Length
Books and blog posts are obviously different lengths. A typical nonfiction book is maybe 50,000 to 75,000 words. A typical blog post might be 500 to 1500 words (mine tend to run 1000 to 2000 words).
Beyond looking at total length, you might wonder whether a blog post corresponds to a chapter. The answer is… Maybe.
Generally, chapters are longer than blog posts. I’d expect a chapter to be something like 3000 to 10,000 words, depending on the book. I’d expect a blog post to be part of a chapter; to become a full chapter, it would need to be expanded.
Of course, some books do have shorter chapters with a very tight structure. A 52-week motivational book may have chapters of 1000 words each (about 50,000 words total). A 365-day book may have chapters of only one page with a couple hundred words each (that’s still 75,000 to 100,000 words total!). So my comments on chapter length are very general, but having a guideline can help you in structuring your book.
Organization and “Chunking”
Books and blog posts both need organization, information hierarchy, and white space, but in different proportions because the reader experience is different.
When writing in short form and especially when writing online, a concept called chunking comes into play. A chunk is a discrete piece of information, easily read and understood. Readers’ eyes tend to move in a predictable skimming pattern, so chunking information helps the reader see more of it.
Chunking often results in short paragraphs, bulleted lists, and lots of headings; white space sets off the chunks. If you use Yoast (a popular WordPress SEO tool) for writing blog posts, to get a good readability score you have probably been “trained” that sections of an article should be a maximum of 300 words. In one 1000-word article, you might have four headings, six subheadings, a bulleted list, and a callout quote or sidebar.
This type of design is useful for skimming. It is less useful for going deeper into the content and engaging readers for longer periods.
Think of a typical print page as about 300 words. If you have a 1000-word chapter (about three pages) with four headings, six subheadings, a bulleted list, and a callout quote or sidebar, that’s four elements per page that are in some way breaking up the text. This can create a choppy reading experience, making it harder for the eye to find focus and move smoothly through the page. This friction can slow down—or even lose—your reader.
Narrative Arc and Transitions
When writing a blog, each article comprises an introduction, key points, and a conclusion. It is a complete thought in and of itself, with one clear narrative arc. And the “chunkiness” of short-form writing often results in its being more direct and even abrupt—the frequent headings, lists, and callouts lend themselves to quick pivots.
By contrast, long-form writing takes more space to develop concepts and uses more transitions to guide the reader from one idea to the next. In a book, each chapter has a narrative arc to keep it cohesive, but the book as a whole also has a narrative arc (sometimes called a throughline): Chapters move logically from one topic to the next, building the book’s overall argument or story.
Tips for moving from blog to book
Whether you’re writing from scratch or adapting existing content, knowing the common differences between short-form and long-form writing can help you start with a strong picture of what you are writing toward. As you begin, you may find you need to develop some new skills in the writing craft. That’s normal, so don’t let it frustrate you; just keep practicing.
If you want to leverage existing content—such as blog posts, articles, worksheets, or handouts—here’s how I’d suggest approaching it.
1. Gather your existing content
First, gather all the possible content you’ve created that might fit in your book. There are a number of ways to do this:
- Print your content and arrange it on the floor (literally).
- Copy your articles and short-form content into a single Word document, applying heading styles so you can develop an automatic table of contents and use the navigation pane.
- Use a tool like Scrivener, which provides various ways to view your content.
2. Organize existing content into a framework
Once you’ve got all your content in front of you, use it to draft a framework for your book, with the articles becoming chapters or sections of chapters.
With a draft outline in front of you, ask yourself:
- Does this book flow logically for the reader?
- Are there repetitive sections that can be eliminated?
- Where are there gaps in content that I need to fill?
- Which topics are not needed? (Not everything will fit. Don’t be afraid to cut.)
Depending on how much content you have, assessing it can feel overwhelming (you know a lot!). You may need to ask: Do I need to narrow the scope of the book?
3. Decide how to use each piece of content
Once you’ve used your content to develop the book framework, you can decide which pieces of existing writing you can use as is or expand, and which sections will be better written fresh.
- Revise existing: If you start with existing short content, you’ll likely need to deepen the ideas, flesh out concepts, incorporate examples, eliminate choppiness, and add transitions so it flows smoothly.
- Write fresh: If you have gaps in content, of course you will write fresh. The tricky part is deciding which short-form pieces should serve simply as conceptual underpinnings that support the drafting of a broader, more strategic chapter. If you struggle when you start revising a short-form piece, that might be a clue to write fresh.
In my experience, it is often easier to write fresh rather than to patch in new content. Additionally, writing fresh helps incorporate a more consistent voice.
Pro tip: Talking through your outline with an interviewer can help identify where to deepen the content.
4. Write and revise
With a framework in place, your writing task is well organized, with clearly defined pieces to write or revise. Now it’s a matter of getting your butt in the chair.
Example: Transforming this article
To illustrate these steps, here’s how I would approach revising this article into a book chapter.
- Assessment: This article is roughly 1700 words. It is organized logically and is reasonably focused, yet it still touches on most aspects of the topic.
- Decision: In this case, I would revise rather than write fresh, targeting about 4000 to 5000 words. After revision, I would see what connections are needed to other parts of the book.
- Specific revisions: Right away, I can flag several things I would revise:
- Links: The links throughout this article are possible expansion points, either within the chapter or elsewhere in the book.
- Chunking topic: I would expand the discussion of chunking within this chapter. I took an entire two-day class on how to chunk information, so it probably warrants more than 260 words!
- Examples: I would add more examples, such as providing the original 260-word “chunking” section of this article alongside the expanded content.
- Organization topic: In addition to telling the reader to organize their information, I’d point them to a full chapter on common organizational structures and I’d reference those structures in the examples I give.
- Remove abruptness: Rather than simply link to “automatic table of contents” and “navigation pane,” I’d smooth it out by saying something like “If you’re not familiar with using Word’s styles, automatic table of contents, and navigation pane, see Appendix A. These are helpful tools for making a visually consistent book but also for organizing your book.”
Now, this may be my plan, but the creative process often leads to surprises, so I know I’d have to be open to new ideas and willing to adapt.
Ready to make the leap?
Turning blog posts directly into a book can work—especially if you plan your posts with a larger book in mind or if your articles read more like personal essays collected in one volume. But most nonfiction books require a deliberate approach to structure, depth, and flow that goes beyond simply compiling posts.
Whether you’re starting with existing content or writing fresh, recognizing the differences between short-form and long-form writing—and adjusting accordingly—can help you craft a cohesive, engaging book.
As you might imagine, I’ve converted short-form content to a book more than once… Need help with figuring out what to do with your content? Get in touch at karin@clearsightbooks.com.