More Words = Better?

FLEE AT ONCE — ALL IS DISCOVERED.

It’s rumored that Mark Twain and/or Arthur Conan Doyle sent this telegram to several prominent men–”all of whom packed up and left town immediately.”

In the “old days,” when Western Union charged by the word for telegrams, laconic was trendy. Poetic, even.

Using email instead of telegrams has meant that we simply don’t have to watch our word count as carefully. And people don’t watch their word count as carefully these days, do they?

What I wonder is, between decreased attention spans, and decreased screen sizes (as more people use mobile devices), will we see a return to terse?

If you were paying for your newsletter by the word, what changes would you make to what you say, and how you say it? And how might pretending you were paying by the word make your newsletter better?

I can’t wait to hear your thoughts!

(Photo from Wikipedia.)