Writing | Business | Relationships
How To Stop Wasting Your Readers Time
Make Your Story Easier To Read.
Most of us write to speak to an audience. We want to entertain, inform, and build community. Sharing ideas is important.
It follows that paying attention to our reader's needs is important as well.
I’ve noticed many writers don’t pay enough attention to formatting.
You’ve created a thoughtful, well-written article and you’re ready to go. You’ve curated your image and crafted an irresistible title.
Before you press Publish, think about your audience.
These days, most people use a mobile device to check in on the internet. People use more than one connected device daily and Google Insights reports “mobile is now central to almost all kinds of internet activity.”
Mobile screens are a lot smaller than a laptop. Even though the size of these screens has increased over the years, they’re still fairly small. At somewhere between 3 and 5 inches, they can become overwhelmed with a lot of text.
Your reader is using their phone to view your articles.
They see your article come up on their Medium feed and are attracted by the cool image. The title grabs their interest, so they click through to your story.
Success! Or maybe not.
Next, they're faced with large chunks of text with no break in sight.
They’re still interested in what you have to say so they try to continue, but the text is filling their entire screen.
Their eyes start to blur as they scroll down through the lines and they’re losing the thread of your story. They start scrolling faster, looking for clues.
But wait… There’s a little break and a quote to look at.
Hmm, interesting quote. They try again.
Faced with yet another large block of text, the reader sighs and moves on.
How to keep your audience happy.
Your reader will decide within the first few sentences whether to continue to read a story or not.
Mobile users tend to multitask, attending to events and activities in their surroundings at the same time they’re reading your article.
They’re likely to be interrupted at any time. It’s important to make it easy for them to return to your article and easily pick up the thread where they left off.
Let’s face it. Most people scan an article, looking for the take aways.
Different people read for different reasons. Some are looking for entertainment. Others hope to gain information. Your formatting should be tailored to the type of reader you are targeting.
- If someone reads to gain information, they want to find it quickly and in a concise format. Scannable content in small bites works best.
- Use Titles, subtitles, quotes, and short text blocks.
- Give them some white spaces.
- Readers who want entertainment are more likely to enjoy some dialogue, although it should be properly formatted with spaces between speakers.
Give your readers somewhere to rest their eyes.
They will be more likely to enjoy your story.
Online Resources: https://www.shiftelearning.com
