The Secret to Compelling Content
Child-like enthusiasm
Content is content. You are not competing against other writers for views, likes, and reads. You’re competing against social media, television, YouTube, email, podcasts, and anything else that can capture someone’s attention.
What do you offer that will get people to give you their time and attention? Not just once, but over and over again?
Take a lesson from television
My husband and I were scanning through Netflix shows, looking for something that met our criteria of being a) light, and b) an hour or less. Some good before-bed viewing.
We came across an odd show called “Someone Feed Phil”. The premise was a well-worn one. Someone travels around the world, eating stuff. The Food Network made a market on these shows, back in the day.
Yet this show had achieved 6 seasons and was still in production. What was their special sauce?
It wasn’t a level of profanity that would make sailors blush. It wasn’t a willingness to eat weird and disgusting foods.
It was enthusiasm.
Phil loves food. Every kind of food imaginable. When he tried something new and delicious, his face would light up, his eyes would widen, and he’d break out into a huge smile.
And if he didn’t like the food? You knew it. His mouth turned down, his gaze lowered, and he struggled to say something that wasn’t insulting to the cuisine or the cook. Like, “it wasn’t as wonderful as it could have been”.
A moment later, his eyes sparkled, and his grin returned. “But the next one might be.”
He loves food. And the viewer vicariously shares that love. It’s compelling.
What do you love so enthusiastically that you can’t help telling people about it? Is it the same thing you’re writing about?
Have fun with what you do
Another example, also from television, is the show Top Gear. It is, basically, three guys who love cars, talking about cars, driving cars, comparing cars, modifying cars, and, occasionally, blowing stuff up. According to Wikipedia, they’ve filmed 32 seasons, averaging two seasons per year.
The “traditional trio” for the show, Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May, started on the BBC in 2003. They left the BBC in 2015, after 22 seasons, and started a similar show, The Grand Tour, on Amazon. Meanwhile, the BBC program went through a number of casting changes, until they found another trio that worked with viewers in 2019.
Clarkson and May, while they have immense knowledge about cars, are not why I, and many non-car-enthusiasts, watch the show. I watch for Richard Hammond.
His sheer, manic glee at discovering a new variety of vehicle he can drive is infectious. He loves cars. Everything about cars. He loves their sound, their smell, and the feel of them. But especially, he loves driving them.
This extends to rocket-cars, amphibious cars, cars with tank treads, cars designed to be their own sustainable ecosystem of plants and wildlife… If you can image a scenario involving a car, odds are good he will love it.
Viewers can share his enthusiasm. But they can also share in the banter and hijinks of three guys doing something they love and having the time of their lives with it.
Are your articles fun? Do they bring a smile to the reader’s face, and make them want to spend more time with you?
The “child” in child-like
There’s another part of child-like enthusiasm that’s important. And that’s the “child” part.
If you ask a child to tell you about something they love, you don’t get a treatise on the academic merits, with supporting citations. They get to the point, simply and directly. They dive right into the good stuff.
They’re so convinced of the merits of whatever they love, their goal is just to help you see and experience it for yourself. Obviously, when you do, you’ll love it as much as they do.
As Yana Bostongirl says in some of her many articles about creating high reader engagement, one of the keys is to write at a 6th grade reading level.
Not because your readers are stupid and won’t understand higher reading levels. But, when people read for relaxation, they prefer to read below their actual reading level.
Write simply. Write directly. Short and simple carry the day when it comes to writing.
And if you can’t write shortly and simply — I’m a novelist and naturally think in tens of thousands of words — make sure that you use plenty of subheadings. Make each subheading short and simple, addressing one idea, and one idea only.
Are your articles — or the subsections in your articles — short and simple?
Examples from around Medium
Here are some further examples from around Medium. All of these articles were ones that I found compelling. They might not hit you the same way. But hopefully, it will help you see what I’m talking about.
Mukundarajan V N is enthusiastic about his topic, of healthcare solutions that support people’s innate humanity and value. You might think an article about dementia wouldn’t be fun. But look at that “restaurant of mistaken orders”. What a fun idea! And, since it appeared in The Daily Cuppa, which features only short form articles, you know it’s short!
Mary Louisa Cappelli, MFA, JD, PhD is enthusiastic about sharing interesting things she finds. This is no exception. She could have simply repeated the information from NASA’s news article. Instead, she added a short list about why this information is important to the reader. I’m actually interested in hydroponics and space travel, so it’s a fun topic for me. And it’s a quick 2-minute read.
This one might surprise you. It’s in a publication dedicated to microbiology. How can it possibly be written simply, and be fun to read? And yet, it is. Shin Jie Yong takes what could be a dry and boring topic and makes it both easy to understand and relevant. It’s not short, clocking in at 9 minutes, but the text is broken up with subheadings and images. Articles like this one are why he has over 12,000 followers.
Wrapping up
If you’re like many readers, you skip to the bottom of articles to see if they’re worth reading. Here’s a quick summary of what was said up top.
- Write about things with enthusiasm. Let the reader feel your emotions.
- Have fun with your writing. Let the reader have fun reading it.
- Write simply. Keep it short, or at least, keep your subsections short.
There you have it! Let me know in the comments if you think this article delivered on those three points.
Check out my previous stories on writing. If you’re not already a Medium member, please consider joining.
