“Good writing does not succeed or fail on the strength of its ability to persuade,” writes Malcolm Gladwell in the preface to his book What the Dog Saw. Gladwell is the fine New Yorker writer and author of best sellers such as Outliers and The Tipping Point. He goes on to write in this preface:
“It succeeds or fails on the strength of its ability to engage you, to make you think, to give you a glimpse into someone else’s head—even if in the end you conclude that someone else’s head is not a place you’d really like to be.”
Engage the reader. No matter what you write, it’s all-important. Even if your piece is pure reporting or pure service, you have to engage the reader. If he’s not engaged, he doesn’t read beyond the first sentence or two. The information you’ve gathered, or the persuasion you may or may not be attempting, will go for naught.
Once engaged, make the reader think. Once he’s engaged, he’s yours to titillate, elucidate, educate.
Fine, Bob, you may be thinking. That sounds great. But HOW do you engage?
A hint: Think about what your readers are most interested in. Start there. Let that dictate your lede, and saturate your story with details that feed your readers’ needs.
Have I done that in this brief piece?
I think so.
That’s it for now. We’ll delve into engaging techniques, strong ledes, making people think, and getting into someone else’s head as we move along.
