How Best to Handle Longer Articles

Readers' Poll

Jaques Wagrez, The Judgement of Paris

At present, when the Tactical Notebook publishes a longer article, it does so as a series of short posts. I do this because I want to:

1. give frequent visitors a variety of topics to choose from

2. avoid exceeding Substack’s limit on the size of e-mail messages

3. divide complex material among “bite sized” readings

4. encourage readers to venture into unfamiliar territory

The multitude of short posts, however, has created some problems. In particular, I find myself spending a lot of time on such things as the creation of links and the location of suitable illustrations.

With this in mind, I am contemplating two alternatives to my current approach to longer articles. These are:

1. Publishing longer articles as complete posts, even if it means that the e-mail version ends up being truncated.

2. Starting a longer article with a single, shorter post and then “updating” the piece with additional sections.

For an example of a long-form (Alternative 1) article, see The New Tank Tactics.

To watch a “growing post” grow, visit Special Unit Kraken every three days or so.