It’s long, wanna take a look?

(In other words, your heading should hook people in)

Writing an article to explain how to write an article.

In the beginning, there is The Story

I learned the first lesson as she sunk her teeth into me. And in spite of the blood, it was her words that hurt the most.

“Your articles are too long,” she insisted. “Who is going to read through to the end??” She bit me again, and said, “At least start with a story, something to engage them - so you don’t lose them before they’ve even begun.”

And she was right. If you’re going to write anything with substance, you need to hook people in, maintain their interest, and finish strongly. I wasn’t doing that yet.

A summary ensures value for people who don’t stay long

I had to learn these key lessons the hard way:

• A weak heading means many people won’t even click on your article
• An interesting first paragraph, ideally a story, will give your readers some momentum
• No matter how good your article is, some people won’t read it all, so an early summary provides value, even if they leave soon
• To carry readers to the end, include hooks throughout.

This last line of the summary should tease them, by hinting at an important lesson from later in the article, by opening a loop which only gets closed later, or by making your reader a promise.

Now begin a deeper discussion

This part of the article is where you write all the things you want to communicate. You’ll specifically talk about their problem (the one your article is solving) and you’ll explain how amazing it will be when you help them solve it.

For you, it’s about getting your material read and sharing your message. And this is exactly the article you need to read, to learn how.

Because this section can be long, it’s an awesome idea to use bullet points.

• They force you to be succinct
• They are eye-catching for skim-readers.

And there is another tool you should use:

| Indented quotes!

Sub-headings should tell their own story

Clever sub-headings will do two great things for you:

• They allow skim-readers to broadly follow your key message, without having to read every word of the article
• They keep your detailed readers focused, and help ensure the message gets across.

Finish with a call-to-action

After they’ve read your article, they need to be clear on what they should do next.

Give them a link to click, tell them to buy your book, or subscribe to your newsletter. You decide.

So now you know the theory on writing longer articles, while still keeping your readers engaged throughout. You can see this in action in the article called “The average photo that you DO take”, at https://www.hashtagyourlife.com/stories/stop-perfectionism.

All you have to do is click the link.

Written by Greg Solomon,
​@hashtaglifegreg​
​www.hashtagyourlife.com​