What’s Wrong With Epic Content?
by Chris
There is a meme going round the blogosphere which states that everyone should produce ‘Epic Content’ or ‘Epic Shit’.
The sentiment is fantastic; that you should only publish something if it provides outstanding value (something I wholeheartedly agree with).
The problem is, many people are interpreting Epic to mean something different. They are interpreting it to mean: Really Long Shit. Just because an article is really long, or a painting is really big, or a song has a 5 minute solo does not mean that it provides more value than something far smaller.
Einstein said that everything should be as simple as possible, but not any simpler. When your produce something, the value should come from the message delivered not the subjective view that it is just really long so must be valuable.
The problem stems in part that Epic DOES actually mean BIG.
Epic: “A long poem, typically one derived from ancient oral tradition, narrating the deeds and adventures of heroic or legendary figures or the history of a nation”
or put simply:
“very imposing or impressive; surpassing the ordinary (especially in size or scale)”
I don’t think that was the idea when people started talking about being Epic. Quite frankly, I have neither the time or inclination to read a really long post unless it provides amazing value. I don’t want to read a short or medium post, or watch a video or buy a book if it doesn’t provide amazing value. How long it is is irrelevant. It’s the value that it provides that you must focus on.
This is the problem. What were are now left with is a number of people producing BIG rather than producing their BEST.
I actually find it far easier to write long. I can use unnncessary words and pad out my content with extra examples. What I find hard, and so do many writers, is being concise. Using as few words as possible to get my message across.
Let’s instead look at value.
Value, a central marketing concept, reflects the sum of the perceived tangible and intangible benefits and costs to customers, primarily a combination of “qsp” – quality, service and price – the customer value triad. Value increases with quality and service and decreases with increased price.
OK, so according to the mighty Google, value comes from marketing. Doesn’t everything these days?!
Nothing in that definition of value talks about how big something is. Take a diamond ring. At first glance many people will remark on the size of a diamond. When you know a little more about diamonds though, you need to understand that bigger doesn’t mean better. There is the cut, clarity and colour to consider alongside the carat.
So where has this problem come from? Unfortunately, much of our cultural education has shaped us to believe that bigger is better from pretty much everything apart from waist sizes.
In Corbett’s post about writing Epic shit, he says:
“Write things that make people think. Inspire people. Change lives. Create value. Blow people away with your usefulness.”
He’s is totally right. The problem is many people have interpreted this as “Write long shit” – even though Corbett says in his post “Epic doesn’t mean long.”
The fact is that you need to provide amazing value in everything you do.
Sure that may well be a 3000 or more word post that you spend days on and provides every last detail on a topic. But it might also be a 150 words musing.
Speaking to fellow bloggers, and seeing things from my own perspective and experience I can feel how people are under pressure to provide amazing value in everything they do. You aren’t going to make a difference unless you do.
But think carefully about how you present you amazing value. For some it will be really long stuff because it covers everything on a topic and leaves no stone un turned.
In the world where people have a very short attention span, longer isn’t better. You need to be as concise as possible and create amazing value. Some of the best messages are the ones that are said in as few words as possible. Mantras, Manifestos and quotes are incredibly shareable and rememberable.
Please don’t take this the wrong way, but it is value that you need to provide and nothing more. If you provide amazing value in everything you do your content will spread, you will gain more followers for your moevemnet and you will be able to live the life that you want to.
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This post was epic, as in surpassing the ordinary (especially in size or scale) considering your usual post lengths.
@DustBunnyMafia Yes I’m aware of the irony. Actually I am doing musings daily and once a week an essay (which usually is longer by default). This is an essay. It’s a new posting method I’m trying (subscription options to follow). Thanks as always for your comment.
I think you are right. I like the idea of writing “pillar articles” better for thinking about writing long, indepth, articles that are filled with all the goods so to speak. I think the problem with the whole “epic” epedemic is that not only is ‘epic’ interpreted as ‘long’, but bloggers are encouraged to once in a while try to write epic content. Writing an epic post is presented as some sort of tactic. All the rest of the time then are we just supposed to write garbage? I realize we won’t hit a homerun with every post, but I hope that I am putting my best effort into every article I publish. And I guess I tire of all the big talk. I am married and have two kids and often wonder if some would think I was a big looser because I wasn’t out doing “epic” stuff every day. I’ll stick to loving my kids and wife and working to help others.
@aarongmyers I think Pillar articles are essential (and it’s obvious you are doing these on your site to great effect). I’ve seen some rambles in other places OR even really value posts which are too long for my short attention span.
I’m thinking that when longer, deeper post are created that creating a series or crafting it in to an eBook (free or paid) is a good way to go. Of course it is all experimentation.
I’m moving towards thinking that the most incredible things you can do are a) challenge norms – present new products and implementation of ideas & b) work consistently – a lot of people can’t churn out ‘Epic’ (in length) posts every day.
Thanks for your comment.
Good point. I’ve noticed the same thing. And man, to be honest, my and a lot of other people’s attention spans online are preeeetty short and we’ve got stuff to do. There is so much good epic stuff out there, that I’d rather read the short(er) epic shit than the longer one. If you have a lot to say, write an ebook. I can print that off and read it on the train if I want to.
@Conni I agree. But I also think maybe we should address why we have such short attention spans…
Thanks for your comment!
Good post, Chris. I love Corbett and his site but there’s hasn’t been any debate around the subject that I’ve seen. I think you’re right on the mark, if you take the meaning of epic to be long. Seems like epic means a lot of different things these days. Have you head it used in the outdoor sports industry. You hear it almost as much as you did rad or shred back in the day.
In my mind, for a lot of blogs I read (mine included), increasing the value would mean increasing the amount of detail and explanation in posts which would increase the length. There is so much fluff around these days. It’s easy to write short vague articles about something you haven’t done yourself but you can tell when someone has experience and has found the nitty gritty details and brings them to light. There’s not enough of that around.
@Ross Collicutt Agreed. Of course ‘Epic’ is a current word. Value is the most important.
- hey I write short vague articles!
@cjstott Sometimes they’re good if they’re a break from the long intense ones and they’re nice reminders of what you should be doing. If that’s all a blogger writes though, it gets boring fast.