Stop Boring Them To Death: A Quick Crash Course In Being Interesting

Our attention span is shrinking exponentially, and content is being created at an average rate of 100.000 pieces per day. Our reptilian brains may have evolved, but they cannot handle so much information. So, what does our brain do? It chooses where to allocate its limited resources. And guess what? Boring content doesn’t make it to the next round. It never did and never will.

To adapt your content to the needs of our adapted primitive brain, you need to make it interesting. And here is how.

1. Have A Point

If you want to keep your readers interested, you need to state your point upfront. And then you need to stick to that point and keep referring back to it. This gives your writing a coherent structure and allows your audience to follow your line of thinking and eventually come to agree with your point. So, have a point. Do not digress. Do not lose sight of your point, or your audience will lose interest. Have a point and try to persuade your readers to accept your point as true.

2. Use Simple Language

If you want to seem knowledgeable, do not use academic jargon, corporate terminology, and hard-to-read words. Your audience will be bored to death and will likely chuck your piece into the bin. It seems counterintuitive, but using unnecessary fancy words does not make your writing more trustworthy. Instead, it obfuscates it and makes you seem less of an expert. Why? Because someone who really knows his thing can explain it so accurately and precisely in simple words that even a five-year-old can understand. Use too many fancy words, and you have a recipe for disaster.

3. Do Not Assume Your Readers Have The Same Knowledge As You

This is the one pitfall that content writers stumble on. We often assume that our audience has the same background knowledge as we do. So we write based on this false assumption, and we, therefore, create tedious and boring content. If your audience cannot understand where you are coming from, they will have to pause and re-read your sentences to get a better picture. If they have to pause more than once, then it is game over.

4. Be Laconic

If you can use five words instead of ten, then use five. Be laconic and always find the briefest way to express your arguments. Do not use too much fluff. Keep it short and sweet. Pass your message across without taking up too much of your reader’s limited time and even more restricted attention span.

5. Tell A Story

People love a good story. In fact, we are all suckers for it. We like to side with the good guys, see the bad guys ousted, and the high school sweethearts get married, etc. If you include storytelling in your writing, you instantly draw in your audience. With storytelling, you infuse life into an otherwise boring document and make it more interesting and engaging.

6. Use Humor

It’s a law. Make people laugh, and they will find you interesting. Add humor to your writing, and you will have your audience begging for more. Put a grin on their face, perhaps, make them giggle a bit, and they will be hooked forever (well, almost).

7. Use Compelling Headlines

Write catchy headlines. It’s the art of bait and hook. If your audience finds your title captivating and riveting, they will definitely read through your first paragraph. Think outside the box, use attention-grabbing words, idioms, and phrases that will tantalize your audience and keep them put till they have gone through all your headlines, and hence your piece.

8. Throw In Different Mediums

Humans are simple creatures, really. They get bored easily, but it is easy to keep them interested by throwing in different mediums in your writing. A picture here, an infographic there, a meme down the line, a short video towards the end, and voila. Without realizing it, your readers have gone through your entire piece.

9. Use Unique Facts And Statistics

People love reading about unique facts and interesting statistics. Add in the “wow” effect with an impressive mind-blowing fact (if you can get a jaw-drop as well, you have hit the jackpot!), and you will have your fascinated audience in the palm of your hand. More than that, people are more likely to like, share and remember content that made an impression on them.

10. Make Your Content Relatable

If people cannot relate to what you are writing, they will not find it interesting. You need to make your content relatable to keep your audience hooked. You have to understand your audience’s pains and enter a two-way dialogue, so to speak.  If your piece does not resonate with them, it will be discarded in the blink of an eye. So make sure that your writing hits straight home and that your readers find something of real value to them in what you have to say.

Now What?

Well, now it is time to get up and start writing. If you are not sure how to master the art of interesting writing, or if you are bored to death (pun intended) and need something stimulating and riveting to do, why not sign up for a Writing Course at the Iris-Academy?