How To Write What People Will Read – Add The YOU Factor
There is no escaping the fact that writing can be a little daunting. One of the biggest fears for new writers is that they wonder if anyone will ever read anything that they write. Eeck! Yet there is a foolproof writer’s method for making sure that people read what you write – your articles, your newsletters, your book — and it is not about how well you write, how good your editing is, or even how much promotion your content gets. It’s really all about writing your truth.
Okay that may sound a little “fruits and berries”, but I don’t mean it in that way. What I mean is that when you include a truthful backstory or example in your writing — that truth will resonate with people on a human level. A deeper level. The will say, “Oh yeah, that happened to me. Or I know someone that happened to. Or yeah – I’ve thought about that very same thing.”
And that is a fantastic thing!
Once a reader can connect with you on a human level, a personal level, a level where they feel they can understand you and vice-versa – that’s when you have started building trust – and that’s when the reader really starts paying attention to what you’ve written and anything else you are going to write. Whether they agree with it or not.
Example: When I finished writing my first book Relationship 911! – I read it from start to finish and realized that I hadn’t included any real examples of my own relationship in the book, only previous clients. So I went back and added stories about my own relationship experiences, because I didn’t want readers to connect with me only as a clinician, I wanted them to connect with me as a woman, a wife, and as someone who had been through the ups and downs of a romantic relationship but had made it to the other side.
Another Example: Let’s say you are a chef and you are writing articles about food preparation — it’s not enough to just write about the details of preparing a specific dish. It’s much better if you can include something about yourself that you can connect with preparing that dish.
For example: “My mom and I use to do this every Christmas Eve” or “My husband and I like to do this part of preparation together the night before a big dinner”.
Add some of “you” in your writing and you will grow a following of readers that you couldn’t get rid of if you tried. Oprah is a good example of this. There were many talk shows out when she started her own, but there was a way that she was able to personally connect with people on the show by sharing how their story affected her or how she had a similar experience, etc. that resonated strongly with people – especially women. It is why her brand is so strong today.
So when you go to write your next article or chapter this week, remember to not just include the facts and the details. Make sure to include a little bit of YOU as well. That’s how you get people to read what you write, bookmark it, share it, Twitter it, and read it again!
Lisa Angelettie
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Very good tips Lisa, I will surely try and include some of them in my article writing.
Best wishes
Cay
Thanks Cay – I look forward to reading some of your work in the future:)
Hey Lisa, I have a question. How come your posts aren’t showing up in your feeds?
Hey Daniel,
I just tested it and I see the posts, but sometimes Feedburner is janky.
Perhaps the day you were looking it was acting weird. I was having problems
with the feed last week – but things seem to be okay now. What browser to
you use?