How To Keep Your Readers Engaged With Your Writing
Your ‘scholarly’ articles are not getting you anywhere unless you want to write to students only.
There are a lot of self-development articles in Medium and most are pretty much repeating the same thing. That is why I don’t click the ones that only have theories, they look like textbooks to me.
I have read a lot of Medium articles as of late, and the ones that stood out for me to read are the ones that shared personal stories in them. Not just a theory of ‘how to do this’, and ‘how to do that’.
In this article, I want to show you why writings with personal stories behind it, specifically the ones with hardships, are the ones that made it more eye-catching to keep read. For people who are new in writing and blogging, I hope this will help you.
1) JK Rowling’s Dementor
In the Harry Potter series, we were introduced to a dark creature that takes away all your happiest feelings. That way, it makes one vulnerable and weak to do anything.
Unlike the main villains, these dementors appeared to be deadlier than even the main villains. Villains like the Basilisk, Umbridge, or even Barty Crouch were the main threat, but the Dementors were the ones that they had to keep a watch out the most.
Following the movies, the Dementors kept appearing after its first appearance in the Prisoner of Askaban, even in Fantastic Beast, and it still perfectly suits the franchise. But why?
According to JK Rowling, this creation was an inspiration from her own depression. When she went through it, she felt like all the happiness in the world just faded and that suicide was in her mind many times. Thus, the Dementors were created.
Although the Dementors didn’t have a lot of screen time in the movies, they play a significant role in the franchise. They attacked anybody with souls and will only ally with the ones who will give them more souls to feed on their happiness, and they cannot be killed, only ward off with the Patronus charm.
I couldn’t find the source on why she kept the Dementors, but we can assume that JK Rowling purposely did this to tell us how serious the experience was. Thus, these Dementors became a very special case that sparked a huge interest and case study among the fans of Harry Potter, making the franchise even more interesting to read.
2) Robert Kiyosaki’s Books origins
Robert Kiyosaki, a real-estate businessman, wrote a book series called Rich Dad. The books taught us about money management, something that schools rarely taught us about, and why people fell to the trap of getting stuck in a life-sucking job all for the sake of security.
In his books, he spilled out all the problems he faced as a child until he is an adult and the very problem that made him the man he is today. He wrote how his family was struggling financially, and how he was so scared to pursue the entrepreneur’s life. He didn’t have enough money at that time since quitting his job, so he was thinking to find another job to support him and his wife.
That’s when his friend convinced him to be an entrepreneur, to face his fear, and live the dream he had always wanted. So, he pursued his dream and was inspired to tell what he experienced in writing.
Today, his books became the best-selling personal finance books.
3) Stan Lee’s Spider-Man’s popularity
In honor of the epic finale of Avengers Endgame, let’s also not forget Stan Lee, who touched everyone’s heart through his superheroes that he created.
In an interview, Stan Lee mentioned that Spider-Man is his favorite. But why Spider-Man? Why not the billionaire Iron-Man whom everyone always wanted to be? Why not Captain America? Or Fantastic Four? After all, that’s the first comic character he created.
This is his reason:
He’s the one who’s most like me — nothing ever turns out 100 percent OK; he’s got a lot of problems, and he does things wrong, and I can relate to that.” — Stan Lee about Spiderman
Now, Stan didn’t share a lot of his personal problems he faced the way JK Rowling shared. However, we can assume that at some point in the story, something inspired him to as he throws problems to the character. That is why he said that Spiderman is somewhat like him.
Spiderman had to face a lot of problems in his personal life and there were times that he felt vulnerable, which is a very human thing. Outside of a costume, he’s just another ‘regular guy’. So the situation that Spider-man had is very realistic.
Even when Stan tried to get Spiderman published, the publisher thought it was a bad idea, basically, Stan Lee was facing what Peter Parker was facing, rejection.
However, soon proved the publisher wrong.
Today, Spider-Man became the most popular superhero, especially to young audiences. The character had so many reboots from different studios with different actors, from Toby Macqgiure to Tom Holland, then the cartoon version where there are more Spider-people Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse, which is in the process of a sequel.
So as you can see here, outside of the comics, even the comic series itself has a story behind the creation. And that story became one of his graduation speeches at UCLA, affecting the popularity of the character once again.
So there you have it
I’m here on Medium to get inspired, guys!!
When you write how you get a couple of bucks on Medium, I’d click it because you gave me a story on how you get there.
There are just too many self-development articles on Medium, but I find that the ones that stood out the most for me, and I believe the curators as well, are the ones with personal stories to share, a story behind a story.
Here is my example:
As you can see here, “My Rusty Corporate Ladder” had more views and fans than the case study I did about Microsoft. It’s because I wrote my story, it’s a one in a million thing and you can’t find it anywhere else except here.
The big publication such as PS I Love you, Better Marketing, and Survivors contain a lot of brave writers who wrote about their hardship personal stories. Whether it’s their relationships or work-life, when one puts a story in, that piece becomes more interesting to read.
Hope you learn something here. Subscribe for more exciting pieces like this.
