Thread: Different styles for online writing?

I am not an experienced writer in the first place, and see online writing as, perhaps, an easier approach than committing to writing a novel at one blow.

One thing I've wondered: does writing online involve different styles than writing for books or print media?

Is there a different audience with different tastes?

Are there restrictions of the forms or genres that influence towards certain style?

Good questions, I think.
Bear in mind that there really aren't any experts in such a new field...however, I'll volunteer some opinions.
I don't think there are different styles for electronic and print media, though ideally blog style would resemble print journalism and at least consult the Chicago manual. That's why blogs have such a bad reputation. Not because of the content, though sometimes that's objectionable, but because of the lack of literacy often exhibited by the authors.
The differing audiences occur even within the "blogosphere", and often within subspheres. People that read popculture blogs, for example, are unlikely to be the audience for professional astronomer's blogs. Some blog subcultures are inherently contentious.
Some professions or interests have their own patois and that would influence posting style. You'll also find more expert bloggers pitching their thoughts to their target audience via a certain "tone" of wordchoice. A social columnist blog is unlikely to use 25-cent words, where a politics wonk may delight in them.

One thing I figure is that people are going to be strained to read 3000 words or more online. I rather like 1500 words as a limit for an episode or chapter, 2000 MAX.

Also, it dawned on me at one point, an RSS feed leads out with a fixed number of characters so it's probably good to have a punchy opening for each episode, something in one line that will get people interested.

Good points. Along the lines of having a "wtf did he just say?" on every page, and good thing for quote-gatherers also.

Thank you, most helpful. I've decided to impose a 2000 word limit on each--chapter? episode? post?--although by the fifth chapter I violated it. Unavoidably, I think.
Would this also be the best forum for writing critique, or just for format, with question on chapters best done in the other forums?

And the idea of having the first few lines suitable as "leads" for the RSS feed is something I wouldn't have thought of, but very sensible. I rewrote the first lines of all but one of my chapters immediately and found that loading interest to the opening also improved the overall quality of the writing.

I think there might be a different style, or at least more detailed focus with online posting of stories vs. novels on bookshelves. Of course this is my opinion. An example...

I posted a story that ended at almost 70 chapters. Each chapter had from 2000 to 5000 words each. By the end there were over 220,000 words. A LONG book by any standard. However, because I was posting the story online, a chapter or two at a time, I held the readers' suspense because I left cliff hangers of various levels with each post. It might have been a major or some minor side C.H. but it kept the readers waiting. Now, when someone reads it, in its entirety, I get emails about how they couldn't stop reading till they reached the end. Of course, if I tried to go back and apply standard novel writing techniques to that story, it might fall completely flat.