Most of my stories are also short, 2 to 3...some probably 1. I have an occasional longer one. Lately though, I've read a couple articles to shoot more for 3 or 4 to get higher reads and views. I thought okay, I can try this out and see if there's any truth to it, but I'm so stuck on 2 or 2. That extra minute is hard to get to sometimes. Then you end up with bullshit dead end words, like you said. Ones that should've been deleted.