Why I Prefer Personal Heartfelt Articles Over Listicles

Both as a writer and a reader — it’s no contest. How about you?

In case you’re unfamiliar with the term “listicles,” they are defined as articles structured in the form of a list typically having some additional content relating to each item.

Listicles typically have numbers in their title, such as Five Signs of a Highly Intelligent Person written by Sean Kernan.

There can be overlap between listicles and personal articles — as listicles sometimes include references to personal experiences, and personal articles sometimes include lists.

That being said, personal heartfelt articles have a distinctly different tone to them than listicles. When reading a personal article, I feel a consistent connection with the writer. It is as if I’m in the same room with them, sitting across the table, and they are sharing their story with me as if I was a friend.

On the other hand, when reading a listicle, my sense of connection with the writer is minimal at best and never as powerful as when I’m reading a personal article.

That being said, listicles have their pros, both as a writer and a reader. One is not better than the other — it’s a matter of personal preference.

The Pros of Writing Listicles

Pro #1: They perform better than personal articles.

A quick look at the 10 recent best-performing articles on Medium(based upon the number of claps) across the categories of Self, Relationships, and Psychology revealed that 80% of them were listicles.

In addition, headline analyzers seem to agree that listicles perform better.

Case in point — I made up two article titles. The first title was fitting for a listicle: The Top 5 Ways How to Be a Nice Man. The second title was fitting for a personal article: I’m Sick and Tired of Being the Nice Guy.

I ran both titles through the isitWP, CoSchedule, and ShareThrough headline analyzers. The listicle title average score was 81, and the personal title average score was 68 — a substantial difference in scores in favor of the listicle.

Pro #2: It’s easier to write a good listicle than to write a good personal article.

For one — listicles are easier to structure — all that is required is a brief introduction, a list, and a conclusion. It’s debatable whether a conclusion is even necessary, as once you’ve written the list, there frankly is not much more to add.

It’s far more challenging to structure a personal article, as there is no standardized layout or template. My experience is that it typically takes lots of effort in the form of multiple re-edits to make sure the article flows well.

Second — for listicles, there is no need to establish a heart-to-heart connection with the reader, as listicles only need to be processed by the reader’s head. You only need to write clearly enough to make your words understandable.

To write an effective personal article, you need to connect with the reader’s heart. That’s a lot harder to do. You need to draw the reader into your story. To make them care about you as a person.

Let’s say you wrote an article about your struggles in handling a recent divorce. You want the reader to not only feel your pain but also to feel joy for your successes in learning how to cope with it. If the reader recently had a relationship breakup, you want your words to inspire them to consider trying your strategies or, perhaps even better, come up with their own.

To write an impactful personal article, it takes:

• The courage for you to dig deep inside to explore the roots of your struggle.
• The willingness to be vulnerable in sharing your journey.
• The wisdom to have progressed with your struggles to the extent you now have helpful suggestions to offer.

I am most grateful to you guys who somehow manage to bring all of that into your articles. You inspire me.

The Pros of Reading Listicles

That’s easy to sum up:

• They typically provide useful, practical information.
• They are easy to skim due to their list structure. If you hit a list item that doesn’t resonate, you only need to skip down to the next bullet.
• They’re quick reads.

Why I Prefer Writing Personal Articles

These are the first few thoughts that popped up:

1. The self-therapeutic value.

When I put my thoughts and feelings into words, I get to understand myself better. That clears the way for me to be more self-accepting, more self-loving, more at peace with myself.

2. The many friendships I’ve formed with my fellow Medium writers.

Especially with those writers who write articles of a similar personal nature. You guys know who you are. Through sharing in our words so much of who we are, we have gotten to know each other, care for each other, and support each other.

3. The satisfaction of knowing I’ve helped my readers through sharing my story.

I‘ve been blessed to get so much wonderful feedback on my personal articles. That makes me feel like all the effort and hours I put into crafting them is more than worth it. Perhaps if I wrote listicles, I’d have more readers. But my words would not have the same impact. I treasure that far more.

Here is one precious example of appreciative feedback I recently received from my Medium friend Purbita Chakraborty:

You are very inspiring and every day of your life is special — not just to you, but to everyone else who reads your articles or who interacts with you. The world needs people like you. Please keep on writing, sharing, and inspiring.

Comments like that keep me going. Thank you, Purbita.

Why I Prefer Reading Personal Articles

1. I get to know the writers.

If you are one of those writers of personal articles, thank you for letting me into your world by sharing with me your authentic self. Thank you for sharing with me your weaknesses, your strengths, your struggles, and your successes.

We’ve never met in person, and it’s likely we never will. Yet, I feel a tremendous sense of connection with you guys. I think of you as fellow travelers, and I will do what I can to support and encourage you to attain the happiness and peace of mind you so richly deserve.

It’s quite a different experience when I read listicles. At best, I get a small sense of who the writer is, typically through their sharing a personal anecdote or two that’s relevant to a bullet point.

2. Personal articles inspire me. Listicles don’t.

The reason being — personal articles connect to my heart, the ultimate source of my inspiration to actually do something different in reaction to what I read. And many times, I have.

I walk away from reading a personal heartfelt article thinking: Heck, this person struggles just like me, and look at the progress they’re making. If they can do it, so can I.

Listicles only connect to my head. They rarely inspire me to take action.

Perhaps if the listicle title was: 5 Different Ways to Save Money While Grocery Shopping, I would give the suggestions a whirl. But if the title was: 5 Different Ways to be a Less Selfish Person, the article contents might perk my interest, but it wouldn’t go further than that.

Parting Words

1. If you are a writer of personal articles, consider not even running them through the headline analyzers.

If you choose to do so, take the results with a grain of salt. As I said earlier, headline analyzers have a bias towards listicles. Don’t twist yourself into a pretzel trying to get your personal article score up into the 80s or 90s. Even if you did so, that wouldn’t in any way guarantee you’ll get more readers.

As per this terrific article from Yana Bostongirl, when deciding upon a title, go with your instinct.

2. Don’t succumb to writing listicles because you think they may attract more readers than your personal articles.

Trust that if you continue to write high-quality personal articles, along with reaching out and supporting your fellow writers, your readership will increase with time. Maybe not as quickly as you would like, but it will happen.

I can tell you from experience your readers are likely to be very loyal. That is because of the connection you’ve established with them. Not only do they know you in a way they never would if you were a listicle writer — they care about you. They also know you have lots to offer them.

Thank you for taking the time to read this article. I hope you have found it engaging and thought-provoking. I’d love to have your feedback, regardless of what your preferred style of writing is.

I’m on the fence as to whether to consider this article a personal one or a listicle. One voice in my head says it’s a personal article — because my heart was so into writing it, and I’ve injected so much of myself into it.

Another voice in my head says that: of course, it’s a listicle. After all, it contains not one, not two, but five lists! Yet, I only included the lists for organizational purposes — to make it easier to get my heartfelt points across.

I suppose it doesn’t much matter what I call it — all that matters to me is that my words got you guys thinking — that they connected with you and were in some way helpful.

A giant shoutout to Francesca Dallaglio on her must-read article which perfectly exemplifies the power and passion of a personal story written from the heart.

Great job, Francesca. I look forward to reading future articles.

Hi, Linda Caroll and Ilana Rabinowitz. It’s been great chatting with both of you. I hope you enjoy this article.