- Tim at Penfriend
- Posts
- My favourite writing technique
My favourite writing technique
Go short. Go long.

Day 217/100
Hey—It's Tim.
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Stacks with nothing. It’s already the stack.
If you’ve been lurking, this is the nudge.
The short line, then the long
This is my favorite move in the bag.
Short line to hook the eye.
Long line to pay the bill with something concrete, earned, and useful.
I’ll use it in product pages, in threads, in texts to myself when I’m trying to stop being dramatic and just write the thing.
Short line = speed bump.
Long line = runway.
It does three sneaky jobs at once.
It snaps a rhythm into the paragraph, it forces me to pick one fact for the short line, and it gives me room to cash it out right after.
I love it because it’s respectful.
It doesn’t beg for attention; it earns it with compression, then gives it back with clarity.
Short line for promise.
Long line for proof.
The short line is where I name the thing in plain English.
The long line is where I add the texture you can point at: timestamps, quantities, the precise noun, the tiny moment that makes a reader nod because they’ve seen it too.
Short line is a door.
Long line is the room.
I come back to it when I feel mushy.
If a paragraph looks like porridge, I break it: one tight beat, one complete beat, repeat until the thought stands up on its own.
Short line to cut.
Long line to carry.
I like it a lot.
Something something, music background, something something.
You might like it too.
See you tomorrow.

✌️ Tim "Slow is smooth, smooth is fast" Hanson
CMO @Penfriend.ai
Same brain, different platforms: X, Threads, LinkedIn.
P.S. Secret from my drafts - if the long line feels flabby, delete the first clause. Nine times out of ten, the sentence still works and hits harder.

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