Are you a writer? This trick will capture your reader’s attention (instantly)
And its not about clickbait titles
Photo by Sam Lion: https://www.pexels.com/photo/
The world is a noisy place.
Thanks to technology in our hands.
The average person with a smartphone is bombarded by 2 to 3 notifications every second of their lives. They are overwhelmed and overworked.
That is the story of Dana. She quit her book editing job to become a full-time Mom. What she didn’t know was the magnitude of what she had signed up to.
Being a housewife is not for the faint-hearted. It requires extreme organizational skills, focused time management, and flexible multitasking.
Juggling everyone’s schedule can quickly become a mess. Dana learned this the hard way. She missed doctor’s appointments, forgot about play dates, and was always late for birthday parties.
Nine years of this hectic schedule were not only draining, they numbed her intellect. Her self-confidence evaporated as she was left gasping for breath barely able to read her emails.
Previously she had edited multiple books now she couldn’t read articles to the end.
At 43 years she was diagnosed with ADHD a condition mostly common with children. Her 15-year-old daughter had it too.
She could easily blame ADHD for lack of attention, but that’s the world we are living in. An average person’s attention span has been reduced to microseconds.
Your reader is overwhelmed - help them!
In his book "The Shallows” writer Nicholas Carr makes an interesting observation while exploring what the Internet Is doing to our brains.
He says the internet's design especially social media, its frequent interruptions and notifications, is training our brains to become more distractible. The constant demands on our attention is negatively affecting deep concentration.
He looks at why multitasking is destroying our attention. That’s because as he says, the brain's ability to multitask is limited, and attempting to juggle multiple tasks simultaneously can result in cognitive overload.
The conclusion of the attention and cognitive function experiment he carried out found that people engaged in heavy media multitasking had low attention compared to people lightly multitasking.
Your reader may not be suffering from ADHD but your reader is overwhelmed by informational overload.
In a world addicted to chasing new dopamine, they are extremely busy and need a good reason to read.
That’s what Farhad Manjoo meant when he said “We live in the age of skimming.” in his article, “You Won’t Finish This Article,” he says,
“I want to finish the whole thing, I really do. I wish you would, too.. . . But who am I kidding? I’m busy. You’re busy. There’s always something else to read, watch, play, or eat.”
And that’s the person you are writing for. So how do you grab their attention?
Powerful Callouts - the secret to writing great hooks!
Hook them into the action.
Great hooks are subliminal they hook the reader without them knowing what’s happening.
A good hook gives clarity on what’s about to follow. That takes a lot of work. a good writer will edit and rewrite until he has the right hook. Because Once the hook is right then everything else flows.
Obsess over hooks and write clearly. clarity is power. You must state or imply A big problem. A problem that people can relate to.
Write clear callouts
Call out the problem. Your first sentence must grab the reader by the seat of their pants.
Make assertive bold statements with confidence. Nobody wants to follow someone who doesn’t sound confident or can’t choose a side. Everybody even haters is drawn to bold statements
Once you have their attention. Then you can proceed to offer a clear solution and an actionable way to overcome the problem, preferably with a unique way of doing so from personal experience.
Alternatively, provide a big benefit or Imply a desirable state that will benefit the people reading your advice.
Here are different types of Call outs
1 Group Callout
This is a simple call out to a specific group of people you want to talk to. For example, People in their 20s,
“All Gen. Z creators and freelancers your phone is not the world!”
You can still call out people even if your audience doesn’t fall into the specific group you are calling out. Do the following;
• Allow them to “pick a side” and compare themselves to what you are saying.
• Paint a picture for a specific category of people they can relate to.
For example, call out to “New Moms” Even if people don’t consider themselves as Moms they will be interested to know if they think they can be Moms someday.
This also works when it comes to promoting your products or services.
You can call out exactly who the promotion is for and paint a picture of the problems they are struggling with.
2. Problem Callout
Calling out the pains or problems people are experiencing will also make them relate to the post.
MOST people have encountered the same problem or pain as everyone else throughout their life.
If you can describe the feeling accurately, you will have their attention.
Simply describing pain points will have people relate their experiences to it. If they can relate, they will engage.
For example, “feeling terrible:”
You can call out to all people feeling terrible by saying;
"You feel terrible because your subconscious knows you could be doing better"
That will make anyone feeling terrible about themselves thinking.
3. Potential Benefit
The opposite of calling out a problem is calling out benefits
People’s minds think in terms of pains and benefits. Tell them why it’s happening and what they stand to benefit.
Tell People what to do with confidence and conviction
Confidence and Conviction
Tell people what they need to do with confidence and conviction. Use the Active voice and write boldly.
Impactful posts exude confidence. They ooze with “I know what I’m talking about!” this confidence is not pretentious. You are expressing the sum total your goals, vision, beliefs, values, and everything else that forms your perspective of reality.
Nobody is secure in their actions, choices, and beliefs. They want affirmations they are simply looking for second opinions. Most people are on social media to be told what to do boldly.
They are looking for someone to confirm them with confidence and give them clarity to act
Here are some tools you can use to sound more confident:
Eliminate words that imply uncertainty
Speak in absolutes where you have to
Exaggerate your point to add energy but do not abuse these for the sake of engagement.
Rather than saying: “It may be wise if some people became better writers.” Say: “It is crucial that everyone in the world should write.”
Confidence will make your writing more impactful. But remember to have conviction behind everything that you say.
Caution people on what they should look out for
Warn people of any hurdles, roadblocks, and problems they will encounter on their journey to becoming better versions of themselves.
Help them with ideas, resources, and ways to navigate through these barriers and roadblocks.