How to Come Up with Unique Headlines by Just Reading Your Article

I’ve known some people who postpone their publishing schedule just because they couldn’t find the right headline. Is a headline that tough to decide?

Nothing will happen on the next day. Your ideas are fresh at the time of writing the article. That is the best time for the headline too, don’t you think?

Today is day 71 of my blogging streak. From more than two months of ideating new headlines every day, I can say “yes” it is tough if you are a beginner (like me on day 1) and “no” if you are experienced (like me after two years). Just bragging, take any experienced blogger you admire. My favourite is Thomas Oppong.

Experienced people don’t need tips, anyway. So let’s just jump right into the meat.

Why finding a terrific headline is difficult?

Headline becomes tough to narrow down when we don’t have any research going into it. It happens when we think we don’t have anything unique to talk about in the first place. It is a newbie creator’s dilemma and plagued me in the initial days of writing too.

But you anyways came up with a 500 words article, right? Give yourself a treat. The headline is just another ten words. We will rock it.

From two months of brainstorming experience

Now that it is not challenging for me to come up with a new headline every day, I think this is the right time to share how to come up with new headlines if all you have is a big chunk of valuable information (article) and you don’t know how to package and showcase it.

If this method works for me, it will work for you too!

Templates work, try them often!

Headline templates also work. I have even tried it myself. If you like following a model that works, then here is a structured article by Itxy Lopez that talks about how to recreate new headlines by stealing like an artist. Thanks to Austin Kleon for this phrase. I am reading his book right now: “Steal Like an Artist”.

If you are a person who wants to try new things now and then, you will not use the template every time. Although I though use it often myself, thank you, Itxy Lopez. I have read her article multiple times. I even used a template for this article. You will find out when you read hers.

You already know the reason why a headline is essential. So, I will straight away discuss how to come up with new ones by just paying attention to your article in a strategic way.

Your article has a theme.

Going off the topic is natural. Let’s say you are talking about habit development and you come across a commendable new achievement of yours. I’ve seen this behaviour in people. I am not lying when I say this: “I do it too.” I can talk about habit development all day.

For me, talking about the morning schedule is orgasmic. When I hit a discussion where morning lifestyle comes, I become a gossip machine. Talk to me about becoming an early bird. I promise you my full attention!

When you go off-topic, you will quickly realise it after writing two or three lines. There are two ways to stop it:

• Stop detouring as soon as you realise it. Then cut the extra lines in the editing phase.
• Go as long as you want because you think you may find something valuable. Then remove the useless fluff in the editing phase.

You can describe the theme in a few sentences, if not one, which is what I always do when someone asks me to change their blog title.

One of them asked today itself. I won’t let anyone postpone the publishing just because finding an attractive headline is difficult. I try to come up with the gist of what the article is trying to explain, then condense it in one sentence. In less than ten words, for sure.

Highlight attractive lines when re-reading your final draft

Before reading the final draft, you must have already read your entire piece several times. The final reading will be even faster.

Highlighting specific lines always works for me because it not only helps with the headline; it also helps me with two other things:

• the subtitle feature on Medium
• to come up with my quotes when I share my articles on Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp and Twitter. I will expand to LinkedIn after few months. I need to revamp my LinkedIn before going active again.

While highlighting specific lines, you will find the reason why you choose them. It is because they were unique to you, and what else do you want to be unique? Yes, folks! Your headline.

Make sure the headline sounds intriguing enough.

The ways I discussed above will help you to create more than one headline for a single article. I am confident in this approach because I have tried it myself. It works so well that nowadays I decide the headline in the end.

I always have an idea about what I will write, create the shitty first draft, do the merciless editing and when I read the article multiple times when editing, I come up with a lot of ideas for headlines.

It has become so frequent that I can’t remember the last time I was confused about headlines. Now I am confused because I have so many options. I want one headline, and I have ten choices to cherrypick.

Don’t you also want this privilege to have so many similar headlines for one article? See you wanted one idea, and I just gave you 10. Overkill!

Final words

Next time you get stuck in finalising a headline, try the approach of multiple proof-reading to highlight sentences that represent the theme of your article in a close way.

You will have a lot of options for the headline. You will have a lot of options to decide from, based on the tone and the closest message you want to convey. And if you come up with some more unique ideas on how to create an exciting headline, ping me on Instagram, or share in the comments section below.

This blog belongs to a series of posts I am publishing in this 100-days streak. Today is day 71. Navigate to the end of article 22, for the references from day 23 onwards. If you would like to read the ones before day 22, here is the first one that documents them in the end.

~ Sanjeev