How Do Smart Writers Keep Readers Engaged in their Stories?

These seven effective ways can help increase reader engagement and reading time.

As with any of your writing endeavors, keeping your readers satisfied so they continue reading is a huge writing challenge. But difficult as it may seem, it’s not impossible.

After reading the writing tips I provide below, you may think of other effective ways to try and increase reader engagement.

If so, by all means, feel free to share them here with your fellow writers. Keep in mind, finding the most effective activity or method to engage your readers may take more than one try.

In my experience, if something fails to give you the results you’re hoping for, just continue trying other methods. For instance, I posted a single story to alert readers about any upcoming stories I have that are awaiting publication. This was supposed to be a way to try to keep them engaged and anxious for pending stories not yet published.

While “Be on the Lookout” may have seemed like a good idea at the time (it sure did to me), it turned out to be counter-productive in the long run. I couldn’t remember to go and update the information, on a regular basis, and when I did, it took more time than it was worth.

So instead, I decided that the end of each story was a good place to post titles of upcoming stories I’m working on (or in rare cases, stories waiting to be approved in a publication).

Now, before you you proceed to check out the seven effective ways to help increase reader engagement, take a second to test your knowledge a little. Think about these questions, as you get ready to go to the next section.

TEST WHAT YOU KNOW

1. What are some basic methods you are already taking when you write, to help with reader engagement?

2. Why do you need to know exactly what you’re doing right?

3. When should you take action to improve what you might be doing wrong?

Applying Basic Techniques

Many writers are probably already taking some of the basic steps to help make their stories more appealing. Some of these basic techniques become like second nature; to the point that you may not even be conscious of performing them, or aware of how effective they really are.

These standard, yet highly effective activities include things like constructing a good title and subtitle, and making sure your story is tagged for the right categories.

There are surely some things you are doing right, and you should know exactly what those things are. Some writers may feel like it doesn’t matter if they know what’s working for them, as long as they’re getting it right.

But it does matter, in the same way that it matters if you’re doing something wrong when writing your stories.

If you’re making costly mistakes that prevent readers from being engaged, you need to know so you can stop. On the other hand, if you’re doing something right, and some of your stories seem to do really well, you should know exactly what it is you’re doing, so you can duplicate the results every time.

Of course, some stories will do better than others, solely because of the topic or category. But once you get into the swing of getting things right, it will become easier and easier. That is why you should take action right away and work on improving in the areas you may be falling short in.

Keep that in mind, as you go over the next section that contains seven things that can help to keep your readers engaged, but only if you decide to implement them.

7 WAYS TO HELP

1) Good Formatting Helps Keep Readers Engaged

Formatting is important and it makes a difference in how your story will be received. Clearly, not every reader will mind if your paragraphs are exceptionally long, or your sentences are structured improperly.

But the majority of readers will, and those are probably the individuals you’re writing for. If you want to have happy readers and give them a good reading experience, than you should be willing to take your time and do the proper formatting.

There’s no excuse for improperly formatted stories, when you have so many good examples to choice from.

2) Help Readers Know the Real You

Helping readers get to know the real you is a great way to keep your readers engaged. That doesn’t mean you have to publicize every little thing about yourself, or share your intimate thoughts and details (unless you really want to). But it does mean giving them enough information about who you are and why you enjoy writing the stories you write.

Have you already submitted an About Me Story to the publication that helps you introduce yourself to readers? I created an awesome one, if I do say so myself, but as of this writing, I’m still awaiting publication approval (what a drag). But when it’s published, hopefully, you should be able to find it among the other cool profiles on the About Me Story publication. Just look for Justiss Goode.

It makes plenty of sense that a reader who feels a closer connection to a writer, would want to continue following them and engaging with what they write.

3) Lists Help Keep Readers Engaged

I wrote my two recent stories that contain lists, because for some reason, most humans enjoy reading lists about different things (me included). To prove my point, one of these “list” type stories was my first story to actually be featured on the front page.

I think it’s a safe bet to say that lists are a good way to help keep your readers engaged. So make sure your list is one they may even want to print out and refer to from time to time. Now that’s a good list.

Besides the two lists related stories (you see at the bottom of this article), I also try other smart ways to help me keep my readers engaged.

4) Questions Help Keep Readers Engaged

I like to make sure that any relevant questions that I pose in my story are questions the reader can relate to also. After all, when you read a story or article, no matter how good it is, don’t you want it to have some value to you personally? Most people do.

5) Images Help Keep Readers Engaged

We’ve all heard the saying: “A picture is worth a thousand words” and this saying is just as true on the Medium writing platform. You probably already include one lone image at the beginning of your story, and that’s it. If this sounds like you, maybe you should start inserting or two more.

Readers sometimes zone out with too much text, and no further stimulation, like the kind you get from images. Try to make a point of inserting more visual stimulation for your readers, instead of just one big block of text.

6) Humor Helps Keep Readers Engaged

In a similar way that images help jog the mind’s attention span, humor can help a reader who may be drifting off (mentally). Haven’t you ever read something that you’re interested in reading or knowing, but parts of the material tend to be a little dry?

You can usually tell where these trouble spots in your writing is, if you read over it aloud when you do your proofreading and editing. If you find areas in your story that could stand to be a bit more punchy or effective, try putting in some humor. But whatever you do, make sure it’s appropriate for whatever you’re writing.

7) Giving them Something to Do Helps Keep Readers Engaged

Giving your readers something to do is a good way to help them stay alert to the material and keep them engaged in what you’re trying to convey. This is one of the main reasons that many writers use things like: surveys, polls, writing challenges, etc. but of course, the easiest thing you could give them to do is think.

When you pose a question to them, make a point to emphasize that you want them to really THINK, not just about the pact answer off the top of their head, or the first thing that comes out of their mouth.

Instead, they should give serious thought to questions about what they’re doing right now, and what they could do in the future, to help with reader engagement.

WHAT DID YOU DISCOVER?

Hopefully, the information you’ve just read will give you plenty to think about, but more importantly, that it helps your readers want to engage with your stories more.

Did you discover something new and helpful, or were these just useful reminders that you can benefit from? If any information was new to you, you should make a point to write a story and try to apply what you learned as soon as you can.

This will make the material stick in your brain, and cause you to want to use it again and again. But even if what you learned was only a reminder; if your stories need help keeping your readers engaged, you may need to be implementing these reminders in your stories a lot more than you’re already doing.

If you made it to the end of this material and have been giving the information serious thought, you should have at least ONE good idea about how to gain more reader engagement.

Your WRITING CHALLENGE is to share your idea in a comment.

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