5 concrete principles of professional writers to make their stories sticky for readers.
All supper beginners like me want their writing to smell like a pro, we want readers to don’t miss a single word, need a lot of praise for the benefit of reading our story.
Principles are —
- Simplicity
- Unexpectedness
- Concreteness
- Credibility
- Emotion
Before starting
A tip for my new friend in writing.
Never try to bury the Lead (most essential elements of a story) creating mysteries with a dramatic payoff at the end is an approach that most new writers use, News reporters are taught to start stories with the most important information.
If I got two hours in which to write a story, the best investment I make is to spend the first hour and forty-five minutes of it getting a good lead, because after that everything will come easily.
-Don Wycliff
Not all readers (even most) have the patience as you wish, they are not going to wind up with your story till the last line, where you’re mysterious Lead is sitting, most will break up from your story in the mid
Finding the core of a story and taking a good lead is the habit of a professional writer because once you got the lead then everything goes easily. (INVERTED PYRAMID)
A good lead example title—
Society of Newspaper Editors:
A healthy 17-year-old heart pumped the gift of life through 34-year-old Bruce Murray Friday, following a four-hour transplant operation that doctors said went without a hitch.
1. Simplicity
No plan survives in contact with the enemy, No sales plan survives in contact with the customer, and No plan survives in contact with teenagers.
-Colonel Kolditz
To survive your writing in the noisiest, unpredictable, and chaotic environment you need to be Simple, it is very common to see our plans failing when it comes to contact with something unpredictable, same with our readers mind they will not react as we plan,
The only thing never fails is simplicity.
Simplicity in writing means discarding a lot of great insight to let the most important insight element shine.
Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing to remove.
-Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Every paragraph must have a core idea of it (like this paragraph has to create simple content) if a paragraph doesn’t fulfill the core idea just remove it. Even great companies are built products and services by keeping the core in mind.
For eg- Look at Apple, they have their core idea to develop quality products they don’t care about price, competitors, and sales, their core is quality, think if Apple starts creating low-quality products will they remain so much profitable.
Wedding out important ideas for the most important ideas.
2. Unexpectedness
Surprise gets our attention, Interest keeps our attention.
Unexpectedness in a story help readers' eyes fixed on your story, that’s why surprises exist In this world, let’s understand this by a story.
Farmer and Goose —
There was a farmer, who had a small farm due to this his income was extremely low, one day a goose come in her farm, the goose lay golden eggs in some subsequent days farmer become rich, as her wealth increases his desire too, he came up with a plan to kill the goose to get …………
You already sense the remaining part of the story, indeed why you are now eager to read the story anymore, if you already predicted the remaining stuff, that’s where the unexpectedness help.
3. Concreteness
Sensory information in a story create it concrete,
Naturally sticky ideas stuffed full of concrete words.
Concrete words trigger your sensory feelings, these words help you to be as in a real story, but when you tell someone a story you always leave the concrete words.
Concrete ex —
Lying in a hotel bathtub, his body submerged in ice, he looked around frantically, trying to figure out where he was and how he got there. Then he spotted the note:
This message is concrete it involves sensory information it makes readers in place of the subject, that’s the point making readers feel to be in a story is the greatest achievement you as writers can have.
All great stories use this element very strategically, now you try to sense that if these words are not as a place of them will story remain so sensational.
The sharp knife, ice-filled bathtub, take a deep breath, feeling loose, and many more words like that make readers trigger readers to live in a story.
These words help readers to feel the same as a writer imagine her readers to be while reading her story.
4. Credibility —
What makes your audience believe in your thoughts, if you writing something without any authority no one believes in you.
Around 1999 an email is regularly surviving in American people inboxes-
The message tells about a bacteria (fasciitis) which is living inside bananas coming from Costa Rica, if someone eats those bananas the bacteria can eat up to 2–3 centimeters of meat in an hour, the assumption of death is clear, people are advice not purchase bananas, this surprising message was attributed to the Manheim Research Institute.
What makes this message spread among people?
Manheim Research Institute is proving as credibility-boosters here, the message is circulating with a tag that MRI is warned about it.
Authority creates thoughts credible.
It is more important for people to remember relationships than statics.
Using statics is a fade approach for making your writing sticky, you need to relate your ideas with those stuff that people can feel easily.
For an ex —
1. “A medium-sized ‘butter’ popcorn at a typical neighborhood movie theater contains more artery-clogging fat than a bacon-and-eggs breakfast, a Big Mac and fries for lunch, and a steak dinner with all the trimmings—combined!”
2. The United States Department of Agriculture recommends only 20 grams of saturated fat in a normal diet, but popcorn is available at theaters contains 37 grams of saturated fat.
The message (1) is more appealing to people because it is easy to relate to and super surprising, 37 grams don’t seem very cool and easy to remember.
Providing authority that people can tell easily and surprise others can say to be the most credible thoughts.
5. Emotion —
“If I look at the mass, I will never act, if I look at the one I will”
— Mother Teressa
Emotions play a very significant role in every aspect of human life, whether it would be making a decision or speaking a lie.
Even those who said they are not driven by emotion come in this category, making everyone’s personal emotional touch is the ability of the professional writer.
Look at some bold things like cars and trucks, do you think people buy them because they like those meatal boxes, the answer is no while buying them we have pictures of ourselves or our family enjoying it, you are planning a country ride while buying or influence of it to your friends.
People just sense emotions not any other things.
As Mother Teresa said I will never act if I see mass, I work only for one because with one we relate emotions, not for all.
How do we make people care about our message?
We make people care by appealing to the things that matter to them,
But what matters to people?
People matter to themselves, making people care is by invoking self-interest.
Writing a story by keeping one reader in mind is the habit of a professional writer.
About story — Thank you for your read, these principles are learned by me from the book “Made it to stick” urge you to read it for credit.
Learning is not enough we must apply it, try to mix these 5 principles every day in your writing.
I planned to turn my writing skill very strong, while this time I use to learn many new skills from great resources this is the first share of that learning if you find worthy I can come up with more, write your opinions below.
