Writing Interesting Articles – Keeping Your Readers Involved in Your Writing Is Worth It

Just like fishermen catching hungry fish, writers have to “hook” their readers. You have to grab them by the throat. By that I mean you have to engage your readers from the beginning so they cannot wait for what follows. Start with action. Make them curious. Entice them. Do not scare them away with details and too much information at first. Who wants details? Who wants to read a whole barrage of details right off the bat?
One way to keep your readers interested in your writing is to use action. Action may not always be fast paced, but it must include your objective. Your readers must quickly recognize your objective. So when you present your hook, consider the pace you wish to set. Do you want readers to move slowly or leisurely through the piece? Do you want them to move quickly with fast-paced content? Are you setting up a scene or are you presenting something which requires their emotional response? A slow, even pace creates the backdrop for a scene. If you want the scene to evoke strong emotional involvement from your readers, make events unfold rapidly.
Another technique for keeping your readers interested is to write information that appeals to the five senses. Enable your readers to see a character’s wrinkled, dry, cracked skin or let them hear a soft, quiet, whispering voice. Help your readers create mind-pictures by using words which produce vivid imagination. Do they taste a stale, week-old, musty apple, or do they taste a crisp, sweet, juicy, fresh-picked apple? It is up to you. Readers will stay with you if they can see, taste, feel, hear, and almost feel as they read. Involve their senses! Keep them hungry for your words, sentences and paragraphs.
The next technique involves the proper use of voice. When selecting the appropriate voice, consider how you plan to “tell” a story. When you are writing fiction, you should mostly use third person. A good rule of thumb for voice is to use third person when telling a story, but when presenting facts or conveying information, use first person ( or even second person). This gives readers a sense that you are “speaking” directly to them.
Another technique for keeping your readers interested in your writing, is to create rhythm. You can create a sense of urgency by manipulating the rhythm of your writing. Urgency is created by using short sentences. If you want to create a sense of calmness or a slower pace, use longer sentences. Longer sentences coupled with “soothing” words such as “lazy” day, “gentle” breeze, or “warm” gesture, create a sense of calmness.
Finally, using smooth transitions allows readers to move easily through your article. You can accomplish smooth transitions by summarizing what has come before in ways that lead to what is coming next. Determine how a preceding idea links to what is coming and use the link (or relationship) to “slide” into the next idea. If there are similarities, point them out. If there are differences, use them to move the reader forward. You can also use a few sentences that incorporate a word or phrase from a preceding sentence or paragraph so that they become a key idea for what is to follow. As a word of caution, do not assume your readers can “link” similarities or differences. Point them out.
When you make it easy for readers to “want to” stay with you, your writing is more interesting-“worth it”. If you “hook” readers who enjoy your writing, you will always have an audience. Use the ideas presented here, and your articles will be interesting and your readers will be “hooked”. Don’t you think it is worth it?