That’s how I learned that staying true to the process is more important than obsessing over the destination. - Nicolas Cole

First, you never want to have three or more long paragraphs one after another. That style of writing has been dead for years, and anyone writing that way on the internet is clinging to a way things were but no longer are. Second, if you are going to have long paragraphs one after another, you want to find ways to change up their internal rhythm so they don’t feel or sound exactly the same. One way of doing this is by using punctuation. Have one paragraph with a lot of short, strong sentences. Have the next paragraph be one long, winding sentence. This is what makes them seem “different.” Lastly, notice how before and after both long paragraphs in the above excerpt there are single, declarative sentences. This is very intentional. Again, you want to subtly tell the reader, “I’m going to tell you a quick story — this will only take a second,” before giving them their next mile marker. There’s something about reading a single sentence after a long paragraph that gives a reader the same feeling a listener gets hearing a chord resolve on the piano. Let your chords resolve.

The inverse rule of “Specificity is the Secret,” is “The Broader You Are, The More Confusing You Are.” Once you understand the role specificity plays in highly effective writing, you will start to see it everywhere. “I want to learn how to cook” is broad. “I want to learn how to cook Chicken Tikka Masala” is more specific. “I’m looking to buy a car” is broad. “I’m looking to buy an electric car” is more specific. “I like writing about sports” is broad. “I like writing about basketball and the qualities all great players have in common” is more specific.

Before you begin writing anything, you need to decide who you are writing for. And that decision needs to be clearly reflected in both the headline and the content of your piece.