OH MY GOODNESS!! You will never guess what I know!! BREAKING NEWS! 

Grabbing your attention is easy, keeping your attention is hard.

This week, I really wanted to understand how articles can lose a reader before the end. Isn’t the ending the best part? I think, for me, it comes down partially to the fluff surrounding what I actually want to know. The fact that I might already know what I am about to read.

I have noticed a spout of repetitiveness that has consistently annoyed me as a reader. If I know what I’m about to read based on what I just read, why keep reading. 

This made me think, how do teachers keep students engaged? How can a three-hour-long movie hold your attention? 

There has to be interaction or an incentive for people to keep going. An unknown ending to make you continue to read.

Good News… I have a secret to making all of this possible in your writing, you just have to make it to the end of the page.

Writing for an audience is like an unsolved murder case, and I know who the suspect is. 

I need to ask you a question and really think about it. When you are grocery shopping in the chip aisle, what bag of chips do you pick? A hundred different options, what stands out the most? What grabs your attention?

FUN FACT! 

Only 51% of people who “read” an online news story actually read the entire article.

26% read part of it

22% only read the headline or a few lines. 

That is a wild fact, but unfortunately, I have to say that most of the time, I’m in the 26% of people. Growing up, for school, we used to have to find newspaper articles and write a little summary of what we read. It was hard for me to even find an article I was interested in enough to get to the end of it. Most of the time, I’d lose interest and head straight to the cartoon section.

George R.R. Martin once said “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies . . . The man who never reads lives only one.” 

Now what kind of life are you going to live?

YOU HAVE MADE IT THIS FAR…DON’T GIVE UP YET!

OK… The SECRET TO BEING A GREAT WRITER THAT MAKES PEOPLE WANT TO KEEP READING IS….

I don’t know, I thought we would have known by now. I don’t know much more than you. But remember you made it this far. So it’s possible to grab your attention. 

Maybe, write to readers like you are telling a great story to your best friend. Maybe, add in quotes! Maybe, ask questions? Or Maybe, just be yourself! Don’t forget to keep trying, and retrying and never stop until you have the perfect amount of you in your writing.