Formulas produce formulaic posts. But structure is not a formula, and knowing what each part of a post does makes it much easier to decide what to cut.
The parts
Hook. One or two lines. Its only job is making the next line worth reading. A specific fact usually beats a tease.
Context. The situation or problem that prompted the work. Often two sentences. Frequently the part that can be cut.
What changed. The actual thing. This is the post's spine.
Why it mattered. The consequence. Without this, the post is a changelog.
The takeaway. What someone else can use. Optional, and forcing it produces platitudes.
You do not need all five. A good short post is often hook, what changed, why it mattered. Three parts, ninety words, done.
Which parts to cut
Cut context when the hook already implies it. If you open with "the fix was one line, finding it took four hours", the reader does not need a paragraph establishing that you had a bug.
Cut the takeaway when it is obvious. "The lesson is to test your assumptions" adds nothing. If the lesson is genuinely non obvious, keep it. If you have to reach for it, the post ends at "why it mattered".
Never cut what changed. This is the one people accidentally drop by spending all their length on setup and reflection.
Shape by post type
Different work suits different shapes.
Something shipped. Hook, what it does, why you built it, one specific detail, close.
A bug. What you expected, what happened, the cause, what it means generally. The cause is the content.
A decision. The choice, the options, what you picked, the tradeoff you accepted. Tradeoffs are more interesting than decisions, because the cost is the honest part.
A lesson. A specific incident, the general principle, the practical implication. Incident first. A principle without an incident is a platitude.
Formatting
Short paragraphs, two or three sentences, with blank lines between them. LinkedIn renders long blocks badly and most reading happens on a phone.
One sentence per paragraph throughout is a mannerism. It became common because it looks distinctive in a feed. On a technical subject it fragments the argument and makes it harder to follow.
Bullets when the content is genuinely a list. Numbered lists when sequence matters. Neither as decoration.
Closing
Most posts should end on the last substantive sentence.
The reflex to add a closing question comes from engagement advice, and readers have learned to recognise it. "What do you think?" is a request for a favour.
If you have a real question, ask it: "Has anyone else hit this with Firestore rules?" is a genuine question and reads as one. If you do not, stop writing.
Length
100 to 220 words for most posts. Up to 350 for a real technical breakdown. Down to 60 for something small and sharp.
The 3,000 character limit is not a target. Posts that approach it are almost always the same content with more setup.