Way Too Many Writers Make It Too Easy for Readers to Click Out of Their Articles

Because they ignore these simple truths

No force, no power, no human can rend asunder the bond between writer and reader. That’s what I’ve seen when I wore the cloak of a writer and played the role of a reader.

But sometimes, as a writer, even after you sprinkle the right amount of spice into your article— enough to whet their appetites and water their mouths — you realize only a few of them want a bite. Sorry, but it happens to every writer.

You’ve done all you knew to do, but the response breaks your heart and threatens to force you to throw your writing ambitions into the Pacific ocean.

The readers come around, sniff at your piece, but take off the next second. You wonder what could be pushing them away because you know you’re not a terrible writer, nor is your work full of 12th Century advice no one could use today.

Your readers probably want you to note these points in your next article.

They want you to help them take their first steps, not your thirty-first step

Congrats on planting another colorful feather in your cap, but your readers want to know how you plucked your first plumage, so they could also do same.

I see a lot of well-written articles on how writer A makes 5-figures every month, and writer B, even more. A lot of readers, most of whom double as writers, begin to lick their lips and rub their hands at the invitation to feast at this glorious buffet.

But we also know new writers, surprise, surprise, will never reap the rewards of 10-year vets.

Yes, times may have changed, but it helps the reader to know how you navigated the tricky waters of ground zero. They would then know how to adjust that approach to suit their situation.

For most readers, learning the ropes from the first-principles would be easier than adopting a strategy you’ve perfected after several years. They may not have developed your kind of ripped writing muscles that come with years of practice. So help them take their first bold steps.

They want some balance

Some experts have lobbed writing advice like “write in short sentences and write with keywords,” at writers far too many times. And a lot of writers have misapplied these pieces of advice to terrible effect.

Unknown to these new writers, they tend to truncate the normal flow of sentences into micro sentences, making a simple blog post look like paragraphs of code for security software. A friend calls it the reading equivalent of running barefoot on jagged rocks.

At the other extreme, some writers tend to pack several long sentences and large blocks of text together like a 10-foot brick wall. Very few readers want to go through a reading maze scaling walls with no space.

Sometimes, to feed the starving SEO monster, many writers have jammed too many keywords into their posts. Writer Dave Schools says it is easier to write for one human than to write for 239 search engine algorithms. He may have said it with his tongue frolicking in his cheek, but he makes a valid point.

So unless you’re writing classified information, strive to strike a balance between long and short sentences, and don’t go too heavy on the keywords. Oh, and let readers take in some old-fashioned white space.

They don’t care if your work is not perfect

Prolific novelist John Grisham sometimes reminds readers that any mistake in his books is deliberate, and he takes full responsibility for it. Whether that is true or not, I love him for acting human.

Flawless prose pleases the eye and soothes the soul, and that’s commendable. But many writers try too hard to produce a buttery smooth piece, overegging what would have been a tasty pudding. The result has been work that appears forced and too refined.

Am I asking you to ignore proofreading and not run your work through a spellchecker? Certainly not. I’m saying readers won’t club you in the head over a few mistakes, provided your work quenched their thirst and helped their cause.

Once, I run some popular articles through a grammar-checking tool to check for mistakes. To my surprise, the sentences and paragraphs got hysterical with colorful lines: several short red and blue lines jostled for space under the words with longer yellow lines.

Yes, some of them may be real grammatical errors that could get the writers crucified. But did I care about them when I read those helpful articles? Not in the least. Neither did most of the other readers who enjoyed those blog posts.

You want to be accurate to a tee when writing in the medical and pharmaceutical fields, for example. But so long as it is not a wrongly placed comma that changes the meaning of a sentence, readers will forgive you for the occasional mistake.

They want you to hear the seconds tick

Some writers would love to steal and bury their readers’ attention in an emotional story that sears an unforgettable lesson on everybody’s mind. And that’s all well and good.

But when attention spans are dwindling like endangered species, the reader is yearning to jump into the juicy bits of your work before another notification pings its way through their iPhones. So, trim the flowery intros and forewords.

Like the great writers do all the time, learn to hook the reader with some tension, some drama, some curiosity as soon as possible.

They want you to speak to them as a friend, not yell at them like a stubborn subordinate

I love pieces that sprinkle questions in them along the way. I feel like the writer is speaking to me, not merely bossing me around. Writer Ayodeji Awosika calls it the three nod principle.

What would you do if a writer got you to nod your approval or smile at a telling question she posed in her article? You’d probably take a second look at her name, and read more of her work, right?

How-to and instructional guides have their place in writing, but sometimes many writers talk to the reader without speaking to them. This point is an offshoot of the popular advice to write in a conversational tone.

When you converse with the reader, they see you as a trusted friend they can always come to for more help without feeling like broken eggshells. Putting an arm around your readers breathes untold happiness into their minds and breeds life-long friendship into their hearts.

Takeaways

In summary, the writer is the reader’s best friend, and the reader is the writer’s biggest supporter. As a writer, you want your supporter to bless your work with his words, money, or time. To keep this tap of support running, always bear in mind some of these points:

1. The reader sometimes needs your help to take the first steps.

2. Your reader is human and deserves to be treated as such.

3. Your reader doesn’t always care for perfection.

4. Your reader has very little time, so steal it before someone else does.

5. They want you to speak to them as a friend.

None of these points is new, but occasionally we all overlook the obvious to our disappointment. To stave off disappointment, remember some of these points the next time you hit your keyboard.