Get Everyone to Read Whatever You Write in 7 Steps
Take out the bad parts.
According to Stephen King, novelist, is the ultimate secret to suceeding in writing.
But what does it mean? Soften the fall when reporting bad news? Not write bad points when writing reviews? Not exactly. It means choosing the right words.
How do you choose the right words? Simple. Take out the bad or unneeded parts.
Which words are Needed? Wording is Everything.
All the fun is in how you say a thing. -Robert Frost
Wording is absolutely everything. There was someone who represented Strunk & White’s well known quote, “Omit Needless Words” this way:
Omit
needlesswords.
At first glance, even I thought it was clever. You omit the words which are needless; I thought it might be witty too. But when you look it over a few more times, it might stop making sense. If it still makes sense to you, let me give you a hand.
Let’s follow their advice and omit “needless” from the phrase since it is already crossed out.
Omit words.
Take a look at the new phrase, “Omit words”. Which words do you omit? Suitable words? Good words? Words that start with “G”? Would you know what I’m talking about if you didn’t read the first phrase? I don’t think so.
Needless is, basically, a very important part to the already-short phrase. If you omit “needless”, the phrase completely looses its meaning, therefore “Omit needless words” is an invalid point.
Getting Everyone to Read
You don’t write because you want to say something, you write because you’ve got something to say. -F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Scannable articles do make a big difference when compared to non-scannable articles. Some people, like me, scan through the article to see if it’s worth reading before actually starting to read.
- A buzzing header that mentally says “Read Me!” is a very hard thing to achieve; not a lot of writers or bloggers know how to make a magnetic or buzzing header. Here are some tips:
- Get to the point; what is the article about?
- Sweeten the deal. Use the power of words to grab the reader in. - A clear topic is a very important thing if you want to be a successful writer. What is your piece of writing about? Should people be treating it as an important document or treating it People read it… then what?
- A topic that benefits the reader is another key thing. You need to give the reader a reason to read your article. With no reason to read your articles, readers will not read them.
- Targeting a specific group of audiences will increase your chance of getting the article on front pages of social sites.
- Choose a wide audience to target. A wide target audience gets you a better chance of having your article being read.
- Make it look good. Make sure your margins are aligned, text is easy to read, font is not too small, the colour doesn’t blend into the background, and every other little thing. An image to spice up your article always helps.
Good luck! What are some of the other techniques you use to spread the word or just shout about something? Please share it in your comment! (Some thoughts would be nice too.)
June 24th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
these are certainly some nice tips, if you are looking to up your readers … you gotta up your style :P
June 27th, 2008 at 2:22 am
I couldn’t help but laugh at your beginning statement from Stephen King. My favorite part of his books are his “Constant Reader” notes. I believe that you took the quote from his “On Writing,” yet his “Constant Reader”notes dwell on the fact that he has “diarrhea of the word processor!”
June 27th, 2008 at 11:27 am
American Alligator- Thanks. :)
Rita- I found that ironic, since like you said, he does use a lot of words! But you do have to leave out the bad parts or at least save them. :)
July 2nd, 2008 at 7:53 pm
Great tips. Header is important to catch reader’s attention, but content is more important to make them read completely.