This advice is even more important with people reading on tiny screens. You may only get a few sentences out before they swipe left, right, up, or down. Make them matter.
This section really hit home, “So start putting a lot more effort into your introduction.. particularly the first and second paragraphs. Every time you edit, read the first two paragraphs and think about whether a complete stranger who doesn’t give a fuck about you would continue reading.” I really appreciate the brutal honesty in this, thank you!
I'm happy to get this response from you. We really don't have much time at all. We can't screw around with our intro. A LOT of people screw their intro up.
Also, this "The purpose of the headline is to read the next line, that purpose is to read the next line" thing is also what I taught for Amazon book descriptions. I think it works really well across the board
Makes sense! And that's more of a copywriting tactic. I'm going to take some more time this year to learn about copywriting. Definitely want to spend more time doing that this year. I got a few copywriting books in my queue.
This makes so much sense — in that the entire goal of most writing is to connect with another human, and you fundamentally have to be able to keep them in the room to do that! From one sentence to the next.
I actually took a class on public speaking and transferred what I learned to my writing. Tell em what you're going to tell them. Tell em and then tell them what you told them. But first I get direction from God. Your article is full of good ideas and I will definitely keep this in mind!
I love this advise! Like you, I was super into copywriting, but its after a few years of learning copywriting, I realised copywriting is much more important! Amazing post Tom :D
The more I do this writing stuff, the more I realize its very similar to making YouTube videos. Just that videos needs more thinking over all. Both visual and none visuals. A reason I like writing more sometimes, because I don't have to think about the visuals, only the actual writing.
It's a lot easier to write a post than to make a video, Jezz. A lot of times on my Youtube channels I write the script beforehand. That's only 25% of the work, though. If my channels were simple blogs, I'd just publish the scripts and move on. I really like that writing is a lot easier than making videos.
Agreed! This applies to literally every piece of writing. Especially books. If I pick up a good title in aa book store and the first paragraph sucks, I put it back on the shelf.
I don't have a lot of patience. I need to be riveted right out of the gate 😁
Hahahaha well I'm not your typical reader either. I don't really do books unless it's someone I know and want to support. In those cases, I already sort of know I'll like their content because I've already followed them awhile.
I don’t think most readers realize how formulaic the things they read in fact are. I didn’t ever really think about it until till I started sharing my writing with others. It’s a fascinating study if you ask me, kind of a way to gamify the process of sharing your message with the world. Great post thanks Tom
Is some of it situational, though. Writing a blog post that relates in some way to personal experience makes an anecdote relevant. But what if I'm writing a post about ancient Egyptian history? That seems like a different situation, maybe a fictional anecdote about someone living in ancient Egypt.
It also raises questions in my mind about the important of images. Not so much on Substack, but on my own website, I try to get a visual in there every two or three paragraphs. I'm sure wasting a lot of time if those images don't contribute to the hookiness of the piece.
Regarding the photos, it depends on if the photos contribute anything to the story. I see some people stuffing stock images into their post and for me it takes away from the experience of reading. If you're talking about a dig, though, in Egypt that's unearthed some precious artifacts and you have photos of that, I'd say put in as many photos as you want.
Interesting. I did have a writing instructor once tell me to not start a story with a quote because no one will know what I'm talking about and they preferred a setup before a quote. But in any case, I don't think that's a hard writing rule.
That's actually precisely why it works. If you choose a good quote that sparks enough questions, people will keep reading because they'll want to know the context surrounding that quote.
"OH MY GOSH, YOU KILLED HIM!"
Don't you want to know the context surrounding that quote?
Thanks for this reminder, Tom! Totally agree; as a copywriter myself, I'm always reminded by my creative director to have something compelling or catchy in the first line of the caption, the headline of a static post, or the first frame of a video.
Hi Tom! I'm actually more of a newsletter/LinkedIn reader myself, since I find that the books that get recommended to me get outdated rather quickly (not to mention, they aren't exactly affordable).
This advice is even more important with people reading on tiny screens. You may only get a few sentences out before they swipe left, right, up, or down. Make them matter.
Thanks for reading, JD! :) I agree. We really don't have much leeway anymore at all. We have maybe 1-2 sentences to hook someone.
And here I thought I was the only one who liked stories that starts with a dialogue, or a quote as you have said.
Haha I love it! It works because it sucks us into a story, and now we need more context to know what the heck is going on.
Quite a good tactic to catch readers. Thanks for the insights.
Happy to help! :)
This section really hit home, “So start putting a lot more effort into your introduction.. particularly the first and second paragraphs. Every time you edit, read the first two paragraphs and think about whether a complete stranger who doesn’t give a fuck about you would continue reading.” I really appreciate the brutal honesty in this, thank you!
I'm happy to get this response from you. We really don't have much time at all. We can't screw around with our intro. A LOT of people screw their intro up.
This is straight to the point and so helpful! Thank you!
Happy it helps, Jazmon :)
Oh I’m guilty! Ha, thanks :)
Thanks for reading Valerie :)
Also, this "The purpose of the headline is to read the next line, that purpose is to read the next line" thing is also what I taught for Amazon book descriptions. I think it works really well across the board
Makes sense! And that's more of a copywriting tactic. I'm going to take some more time this year to learn about copywriting. Definitely want to spend more time doing that this year. I got a few copywriting books in my queue.
This makes so much sense — in that the entire goal of most writing is to connect with another human, and you fundamentally have to be able to keep them in the room to do that! From one sentence to the next.
I actually took a class on public speaking and transferred what I learned to my writing. Tell em what you're going to tell them. Tell em and then tell them what you told them. But first I get direction from God. Your article is full of good ideas and I will definitely keep this in mind!
I love this advise! Like you, I was super into copywriting, but its after a few years of learning copywriting, I realised copywriting is much more important! Amazing post Tom :D
Thanks Irene for reading :)
The more I do this writing stuff, the more I realize its very similar to making YouTube videos. Just that videos needs more thinking over all. Both visual and none visuals. A reason I like writing more sometimes, because I don't have to think about the visuals, only the actual writing.
It's a lot easier to write a post than to make a video, Jezz. A lot of times on my Youtube channels I write the script beforehand. That's only 25% of the work, though. If my channels were simple blogs, I'd just publish the scripts and move on. I really like that writing is a lot easier than making videos.
Agreed! This applies to literally every piece of writing. Especially books. If I pick up a good title in aa book store and the first paragraph sucks, I put it back on the shelf.
I don't have a lot of patience. I need to be riveted right out of the gate 😁
I gotta keep this in the back of my mind if I write a book one day. That's a ton of pressure.
Hahahaha well I'm not your typical reader either. I don't really do books unless it's someone I know and want to support. In those cases, I already sort of know I'll like their content because I've already followed them awhile.
Same, I usually glance at the back cover and the first page, if I do not like the way it reads I put it back.
I don’t think most readers realize how formulaic the things they read in fact are. I didn’t ever really think about it until till I started sharing my writing with others. It’s a fascinating study if you ask me, kind of a way to gamify the process of sharing your message with the world. Great post thanks Tom
Oh yeah! There's so much gamification going on with content these days. I don't see as much of it here on Substack, but yeah, formulas work.
Sound advice!
Is some of it situational, though. Writing a blog post that relates in some way to personal experience makes an anecdote relevant. But what if I'm writing a post about ancient Egyptian history? That seems like a different situation, maybe a fictional anecdote about someone living in ancient Egypt.
It also raises questions in my mind about the important of images. Not so much on Substack, but on my own website, I try to get a visual in there every two or three paragraphs. I'm sure wasting a lot of time if those images don't contribute to the hookiness of the piece.
Regarding the photos, it depends on if the photos contribute anything to the story. I see some people stuffing stock images into their post and for me it takes away from the experience of reading. If you're talking about a dig, though, in Egypt that's unearthed some precious artifacts and you have photos of that, I'd say put in as many photos as you want.
Interesting. I did have a writing instructor once tell me to not start a story with a quote because no one will know what I'm talking about and they preferred a setup before a quote. But in any case, I don't think that's a hard writing rule.
That's actually precisely why it works. If you choose a good quote that sparks enough questions, people will keep reading because they'll want to know the context surrounding that quote.
"OH MY GOSH, YOU KILLED HIM!"
Don't you want to know the context surrounding that quote?
Thanks for this reminder, Tom! Totally agree; as a copywriter myself, I'm always reminded by my creative director to have something compelling or catchy in the first line of the caption, the headline of a static post, or the first frame of a video.
Cheers!
What are some underrated copywriting books you recommend I read, Regina?
Hi Tom! I'm actually more of a newsletter/LinkedIn reader myself, since I find that the books that get recommended to me get outdated rather quickly (not to mention, they aren't exactly affordable).
My first Creative Director lent me this book back when I was a junior copywriter: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/758311.Cutting_Edge_Advertising and I think it has a lot of Pinterest-worthy examples you can use as a swipe file later on.
For college kids/fresh grads, I would recommend this book; it's what I read when I was first deciding to go into advertising: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/29934550
Hope this helps! :)
this is excellent. literal food for thought - I can never un-know this again. thanks!