Let's talk about a good person. Let's talk about a good person How to start writing an article

Article writer, journalist. In this note, we will share with you our secrets that we adhere to when writing any material. Do you want to learn how to write an interesting, high-quality and memorable article? Read on.

The rules of professional copyright are simple and logical. It is surprising how many people do not comply with them - the proof of this is the mass of texts that you do not want to read from the first sentences.

So, how to prepare for writing material and where to get information?

If you write an article yourself for your website or blog, this does not mean that this stage must be skipped. You need to prepare the TOR yourself, otherwise, you risk writing a bad article that will:

• not interesting;
• not logical;
• does not reveal the whole topic;
• do not meet the basic search engine optimization (SEO) criteria.

If you are writing an article to order, then it is important to carefully study the TOR. If for some reason you are given the task to write an article without those. tasks, it is better to require the customer to specify their wishes at least in an e-mail or in correspondence on the same content exchange.

If you forget to discuss unclear or controversial points with the customer, then for you it may turn into a revision of the article or even the cancellation of the order, as a result of which you will not only lose precious time, but also money, effort, and the client.

Do not be afraid to appear incompetent, as the saying goes: "measure seven times, cut once." In our case, “specify information seven times, write once.” Moreover, it is advisable to consult at all stages of preparing and writing an article.

SECOND STAGE: COLLECTING INFORMATION

Use reliable sources. What are reliable sources? These are official sites dedicated to a given topic.

Write about a company - this is the company's website, about a person - his official page, as well as his profiles in in social networks if it supports internet communication.

Use original sources, not reprinted or. This is where knowledge comes in handy. foreign language, we often turn to English-language sites.

Reliable sources also include respected resources - those that can be trusted. It is impossible to list any specific ones, common sense will help here.

For example, if you are working on a company history, the source financial indicators its annual reports published on the official website will serve, and for a visual assessment of the activities of the enterprise in comparison with competitors, you can use Forbes ratings.

If you are writing about the value of shares of a corporation, go to the website of the stock exchange, where securities are quoted, and find out their current rate.

Don't be lazy

When working on an article, it is not enough to “dig” in 2-3 sources. What if you tell in your own words about what everyone already knows?

Do not follow the example of today's schoolchildren who write essays about "Crime and Punishment" based on Internet reviews of this work ...

Don't be lazy! Be curious! Know how to "dig deeper", look for new information, study the material comprehensively.

For example, if you write in an article that the company's new marketing move was successful, look at youtube commercials, read about the company that came up with stories for them, find out which of the stars were invited to participate in the filming, how competitors reacted to this promotion, etc.

If you are writing about a famous person, read an interview with him, find out his opinion about the sensational film premiere, take an interest in celebrity quotes, find out what he is proud of in his life and what news he shared yesterday on Facebook, etc. etc.

To more "convexly" present the hero of the article, read books about him, compiled by official biographers and / or colleagues, and also study this person's own writings (if he wrote them).

If there is a choice, I upload audio versions of these materials, it saves time.

Take advantage of fresh data

This is an axiom. There is plenty of outdated data on Wikipedia as well. If the year is 2013, then you should not indicate the sales volumes of a well-known company for 2008, unless they were uniquely record-breaking.

If you write that a company is releasing a new gadget, check the news feed of the developers, perhaps they are already busy releasing another technical novelty. In general, enough examples, you already understood everything)

So, you thoroughly dug into reliable sources, collected a lot of information and comprehensively studied the material. Now what? Now I will tell you what you need to pay attention to when writing an article.

THIRD STAGE: WRITING THE ARTICLE

Plan your article

Make a plan for your future article, following the classic essay formula "introduction - main body - conclusion."

This structure, known since the lessons of the Russian language, has not been canceled. You can write brief summary.

Represent the audience

Be sure to consider what audience your article will be designed for. Let's say you were given the task to write an article-instruction "How to install an application on the iPhone." If you write this article for advanced users, then the entire text of the article will be reduced to four points:

1. Sign in appstore
2. Log in
3. Download
4. Install the app

An experienced person will immediately understand what is at stake. In this situation, it does not need to be loaded with unnecessary information, give detailed instructions, insert screenshots or videos.

But a beginner from the above instructions will understand, perhaps, only the word “Download”. Therefore, a completely different material must be prepared for it. Here is an example of such an instruction:

You can see the instructions for more details. If we analyze this article, then it contains:

• 8 186 characters without spaces,
• 1374 words,
• 23 photos
• 2 videos.

Feel the difference?

Analyze information

Think about where you will start, what facts you will definitely tell about, and which ones you will ruthlessly discard so as not to overload the perception of the main material.

Be prepared for the fact that from the source material to the final article will get ... 20 percent. But the remaining 80 is not in vain the collected baggage, namely, what will help you to qualitatively reveal the given topic.

Write interesting

Write an article as for yourself - so that you yourself would be interested in reading it. The ability to present information in an entertaining way is what you should strive for.

Boring monotonous narratives, catching up with melancholy, no one reads to the end. Often there are materials in which the amount of information per 1 square centimeter simply rolls over - the abundance of numbers and dates dazzles the eyes.

Remember your school lesson(or a lecture at the university) - when the teacher monotonously mumbles a theory or writes formulas on the blackboard without stopping - attention is scattered.

Teachers have always been especially popular, who at the right time recalled funny cases out of life and "defuse the situation."

Of course, all the main facts need to be covered - without them, your story on a given topic will turn from a documentary into a fantasy one. But a little "dilute" the submitted information fun fact or a quote - and the reader will not run away from you!

Think with your head

It is his own - even in the primary sources, at times, there are such “blunders” that you simply wonder! Here's an example for you - we go to the official website of the writer Paulo Coelho paulocoelho.com, then click on the Russian flag and go to the no less official page http://www.coelho.ru/, where in the "Biography" section we read (quote):

"His unwillingness to follow the will of his parents led to the fact that at the age of 17 Paulo was assigned to a psychiatric hospital (1966), where he received treatment with electric shock."

What confuses me? Yes, it’s just that in the indicated year 1966, Coelho could not have been 17 years old - the year of birth of the Brazilian writer is 1947!

You can see such inconsistencies everywhere - so before you write something, show a little distrust in the material and think about it yourself!

Write about what you understand

If during the study of the material you come across unknown abbreviations or concepts, study them.

If you simply insert them into the context as they were mentioned in the original source, or if you decide to get rid of unfamiliar terms altogether, this will not do you credit.

After all, maybe your reader will be puzzled by an unprecedented definition, so tell him what's what, and increase your level of knowledge together)

Customize articles for your readers

It's great if you know how many centimeters are in inches and kilograms are in pounds. But, believe me, the average citizen of the Russian Federation is better versed in his usual units of measurement, and not to translate all these foreign measures into “normal”, in my opinion, is simply disrespect for your reader.

If sales of a rock star's new album hit an all-time high in New York, that's good. But also take an interest in how many people attended his concert in Moscow - given fact no worse tell about the popularity of the singer.

Don't Make Mistakes

This rule does not need special explanations - and so it is clear that only a competent text will produce good impression on the customer.

If you are not sure of your knowledge and / or the Word spell checker, check the spelling of a word in a dictionary. So that later it doesn’t work out, like Winnie the Pooh: “My correct spelling is lame. It’s good, but for some reason it’s lame.”

To correctly write an article, I recommend checking for errors in the Spelling service. Just do not blindly rely on such automatic assistants. Carefully check the errors indicated by the service and think with your head, because the robot can interpret this or that result in its own way, and the person makes the final decision - leave it as it is or make changes.

Read the finished article

Before submitting the material, be sure to read your work, even if it seems to you that you have already corrected all the shortcomings in the text.

You can print the article on a printer and make notes on paper - if this is more familiar to you than reading from a monitor screen. We prefer to distill the article in e-book and again, slowly, re-read it.

Check text for uniqueness

The final article must be unique - here you can use special free programs text verification, of which there are a great many on the Internet.

High quality checks for uniqueness are provided by the Text.ru service, however, a comparison of such programs is the topic of a separate article.

Matches with articles already posted on the Internet are allowed when you quote in your work.

FOURTH STAGE: ARTICLE DESIGN

Regardless of whether your client has an article designer or not, the copywriter must arrange the text for readability. Articles written in a continuous canvas are extremely difficult to read. The eyes get tired quickly and the person stops perceiving information. As a result, neither readers, nor your customer, nor you as an employee will benefit from such an article.

Your content should, if possible, contain following structure or elements:

• content, especially for long articles;
• paragraphs consisting of 2-3 sentences, no more than 5 lines. Here it is more correct to start not from Word, in which you write an article, but from the site that will host the work you have prepared. Remember that 5 Word lines on a site can turn into 10 because of the difference in page layout;
• headings and subheadings h2-h4;
• enumeration lists (bulleted and numbered);
• tables;
• quotes;
• widgets;
• comparative characteristics;
• Photo and video.

I draw your attention to the fact that not every article should contain all of the listed elements. Also, not in all cases, a copywriter should deal with the design, for example, of the same widgets, tables, search and insert photo and video materials. In large projects, Article Designers do this kind of thing.

Nevertheless, the copywriter is the main character and who better than anyone else knows your material? You can indicate with a separate footnote for the customer that at this point in the article it would not be bad to insert such and such a table or video.

Perhaps this was all spelled out in the terms of reference, which is why we indicated the Study and discussion of the TOR as the first stage and made a note: "... at all stages of preparing and writing the article."

And finally, remember that your reader is also a person)

Respect him, yourself and your customer.

Read also on this topic.

That's the problem, the problem! How to start an article? Not one copywriter puzzles over this question. It happens that everything is fine in the main part of the article, the end is also logical, but the beginning looks sluggish, boring and very banal! Let's tell you a secret: in order to captivate the reader, the article must have, firstly, an interesting title, and secondly, a "catchy" first paragraph, that is, the very beginning. Even if later the article is written interestingly and well, the reader may not know this, because he will evaluate the material by the first lines. If he sees hackneyed phrases, banality, or sentences that are too difficult to read at the beginning, he will close the article without regret.

If you want to ensure that people take your articles with a bang and read excitedly, then it's time to learn how to start your text correctly. That is what we are going to talk about now.

"Each of us ...", "Today ...", "Not so long ago ...", "At present ..." - such words and expressions are mortally bored, cause a desire to yawn and quickly close "another template article." Such initial phrases seem normal to you, but in the reader they evoke precisely those feelings and desires that we have just described. The reader has already "fed up" with such materials, and therefore, from the very beginning, such articles will be perceived as boring, useless and mediocre. Another mistake is very long, drawn-out sentences with numerous terms and complex constructions. In order to “drive into” what you want to say with such a sentence, a person must either read very slowly or re-read several times. Readers are not pleased with the well-known thoughts like "Birthday happens only once a year!", "A child in a family - big happiness"etc. Boring!

• Do not use banal phrases and words at the beginning of the article;
• Refuse clericalism, "hackneyed" designs, templates;
• Do not try to make the beginning of the article abstruse by using long sentences and an abundance of difficult terms.

How to start an article: good options

In order for the beginning of the article to cause a person to think like: “Wow, this is something interesting, I haven’t read this yet! What does it say next?” Use the techniques suggested below. We offer you exactly the techniques that successful copywriters use.

1. Start the article with a question. Thus, you involve the reader in a conversation, he willy-nilly answer it and be sure to see what you write next. For example: "You know that smoking is harmful, but you are not going to quit anyway?", "Do you have a loved one and a close person?".
2. Creating a mental image. Reception is good, but not suitable for all articles. Its essence is that you need to invite the reader to imagine a certain situation: "Imagine that suddenly ...", "Imagine that you ....", "Let's say you have ....", etc. Further write what situation you want to imagine. Thus, you also involve the reader in communication, interest him, he thinks: "Well, presented, and what's next?" and read your article.
3. History or anecdote. All people love to listen and tell each other stories. It's interesting, it brings you together, so why not tell an exciting story (maybe fictional) or an anecdote on the topic at the very beginning? The main thing here is the liveliness of the narrative, you can use a colloquial style. Let the reader imagine that this story is being told by a friend or acquaintance. It will be great if you tell a story from your life, so to speak, from personal experience. This inspires confidence in the reader and the idea that "the author understands me and will certainly advise or tell something more sensible."
4. Statement of problem or question. If it’s hard for you to come up with a “catchy” start, then the easiest way is to immediately point out the problem or question that interests the reader, and promise to give a useful and correct answer to it, and then start doing it.
5. Conclusion on emotions. To interest the reader, at the very beginning of the article, he can be led to positive or negative emotions, for example, to provoke. Usually this affects a certain audience of readers, and it is negative emotions that work better than positive ones. For example: "All women are such fools!", "To spend time on the Internet is an occupation for ordinary and boring people." At the same time, it is important in the article to refute your attacks on readers so that they do not take offense.
6. Quotes and facts. Two more simple ways for those who can't think of a witty start. All that is needed is to provide at the very beginning factual data related to the issue under consideration, or an exact quote. famous person, also directly related to the subject of the conversation.
7. Joe Sugerman, an American copywriter, once came up with another way to start an article. It's called "slippery hill". Its essence lies in the fact that at the beginning the shortest unsaid sentence is written. It raises interest and a lot of questions. In the second sentence, the idea is considered in more detail, appears new information, in the third sentence - more more information. So we gradually lead the reader to reading the information that we want to tell.

Here are a few ways to get started writing an article, use any of them and spark reader interest!

There are several well-known methods how to start writing an article and capture the attention of the reader from the first minutes. Here they are:

How to start an article from scratch?

8 ways to start an article

Most copywriters do not even assume that almost everyone who visits the page reads the beginning of the article. And largely from how did you start the article author, depends on the fate of its continuation. Therefore, we have collected 8 best methods in one list:

1. Slippery slide

As a rule, everyone who has reached the pinnacle of success in writing articles sticks to the Sugarman Slippery Hill. At one time this method of writing an introduction to a text invented by Joe Sugerman, a famous copywriter. Sugarman method, how to start an article, is universal. They are used when writing various articles and texts. You can apply it everywhere. Let's see what the principles of this method are:

1. The first sentence should be constructed so that it is as short as possible and seems unsaid. This will greatly intrigue the reader. It should also raise a question in the reader. Which will make him read the next sentence in order to find the answer in it.
2. The next sentence should intrigue the reader even more so that he turns to the next one.
3. And so on down the chain, with each new offer, interest will increase:

2. Facts and figures.

Also, at the beginning of the article, you should bet on facts and statistics. So your article will seem interesting to the reader, and they will be happy to read it to the end:

3. Question.

The next option that can and should be used in the introduction is to resort to the help of a question. What is it for? And for the fact that a person, reading a question, himself gave an answer to it. And it is thanks to the answer that reading the text draws him in at a crazy speed. As a result, the text will be read.

P.S.: And an even better effect will be produced by such a question in which intrigue sounds.

4. Controversial statement.

controversial statement can lure the reader

This technique consists in writing a phrase at the beginning of the article that will provoke people to emotions (the beginning of the article is most effective if negative emotions wake up).

This technique is most often used by copywriters who have great experience work and know how not to overdo it. After all, this negative must be removed completely in the continuation of the article. And for beginners, this is often not possible.

5. History.

It is also worth remembering that people love to read stories. People get something useful from stories. As the saying goes: "We learn from the mistakes of others." That is why they are read with interest.

6. Use your imagination.

There is also another method. It's called "hypnosis". And they use it more often when writing. What is the essence of the method? It's simple - the article begins with words such as: "remember", "imagine" and the like.

7. Own example.

The copywriter can take example from my life to start the article interesting

You can also use examples from own life, the reader likes it very much. This method is identical to the story, with only one difference, the story is written in the third person, and here the author himself tells.
You can also focus the reader's attention on a certain problem that is relevant today and promise to talk about its solution later in the text.

8. News.

And the last method: introduction-news. You can take advantage of people's interest in the news and start the article with the words: "intrigues", "scandals", "investigations".

We released new book"Social media content marketing: How to get into the head of subscribers and make them fall in love with your brand."

Most copywriters are assholes. Even if you make a detailed TOR, tell in detail what to write about and what you want to see, you still risk getting a terrible text. Instead of good and interesting material, the scribbler will give out something completely different. Therefore, sometimes it is easier to do everything yourself.

If you are not a writer at all (or a beginner) and you suddenly want to file a bomb article, but it is not being written - read on, there will be examples, algorithms, explanations on how to write an article correctly and that's it. There will be no magic formulas backed by research and A / B testing here, only personal experience from which you can draw something for yourself. If you are a beginner blogger, read on too, because a blog is not a drain hole where you can pour a stream of consciousness. This is a platform for interesting and good content. And you want to do just that anyway.

Article writing algorithm

You gathered your thoughts, created a file in Word and are ready to start. And then you happen existential crisis- you don’t understand what to do with your future article: what and how to write about, which submission method to choose, where to start. This happens because you started from the wrong place. First you need to prepare. Let's see how to do it.

Analysis

The first rule of writing an article: work with the text begins even before you write the first line. First you need to analyze everything: decide why and for whom you are writing material, what result you want to achieve and how you are going to do it. Answering these questions means cutting off all unnecessary and starting to work on the target audience.

So you will understand in what style to write and whether professional terms can be used. After that, you can sketch out the future structure, decide on the pitch and do a lot of other useful things.

Examples of analysis when writing an article

We are writing an article for the blog of a brokerage company.

For whom:potential customers who understand the topic at a basic level; professional brokers, analysts and sympathizers.

For what:talk about current trends in the market and how to use them for your own selfish purposes.

Result:confirm expertise; prove that the employees of the company can be trusted with their money.

How we achieve the goal:we give arguments and analytical calculations; we advise you to contact professionals if knowledge and experience are not enough; we use basic professional terms, more complex ones are explained separately.

Let's go through each item

First we define our target audience. It consists of two large segments: professional colleagues and potential clients of the company. The first will appreciate the material only if it is useful and relevant. They want to get new knowledge that will be useful in everyday work. The latter are unlikely to follow the instructions from the article on their own, they will simply understand that you understand the issue and will be more willing to trust you with their money. Let's move on to the next point.

First, we determine the “reader value” of the material ˜ – what will be received by those who click on the link and spend some of their time on the article. This is important because no one will read a text written for its own sake. People need something useful: advice, examples, theory, in general, something that they use in their own life and work.

Next, we define the purpose of the company. It can be anything: increase the number of hits, brand awareness, confirm expertise. The main thing is that she was. Readers don't need useless text, but neither does the company. What is the point of spending money on writing articles if the output from them is zero?

The last block brings everything together and helps you decide on the tools. We have already identified the target audience and set goals. Now we need to understand how to achieve these goals. In our case, we need to do two things: prove expertise to colleagues, and advise clients to turn to professionals. To achieve the first goal, we need to find fresh, relevant and useful information. To achieve the second, you need to present this information in a clear and convenient way, because potential customers different level economic literacy and this must be taken into account.

If there are complex things in the article, they should be explained separately on the fingers. What is obvious to a professional is completely incomprehensible to a beginner. At the same time, you should not completely abandon the terms, you just need to apply them carefully and with care for the reader. Example: “...volatility has increased – the difference between the highest and lowest price of assets. Their cost fluctuated within 7%.

All these things are easily transferred to any topic. If you are writing an article for a cosmetics store blog, target a female audience of almost all ages. Review new products, or detailed instructions with screenshots and videos. Mention products sold in your store, but without fake advertising. Do not use English words if you can not do it. Make clear and interesting article for everyone and don't forget the fun - your audience doesn't want to read textbooks.

An important point: it is better to write everything down. If you keep all the analytical calculations in your head, it is easy to miss something. And you can always return to the entry at the beginning of the document to check if you have gone astray. Even better - write everything down on a piece of paper in beautiful handwriting. This helps to remember everything at once - the effect is the same as from the abstract. If the student did not stick to the phone during the class, then he remembers the content of the lecture for at least a couple of hours after it ends.

Making the structure

We have decided what to write about, now we will figure out how to write. To make it clear and convenient for the reader, you need to carefully pack your thoughts into blocks and paragraphs - this way the text is easier to read. This will help put everything in order in your own head and the head of the reader. Come on and look necessary information it's easier that way too.

The structure of the text is not subject to rules and formulas, only common sense. If the format allows, go from the general to the specific. Let's analyze an example of developing a structure when writing an article: let's try to outline a material plan about neural networks.

Article outline

• Introduction.
• What are neural networks?
• How do they work?
• What are and where are they used?
• How will they be used in the future?
• Conclusion.

In my opinion, everything is logical: we start with general concept and gradually delve into the topic. Use headings for each separate semantic block, do not combine them if you can do without it. Let's look at the example above: you can talk about what neural networks are and how they work in two different blocks. But with classification and application, this cannot be done - these things are tightly tied to each other.

If you are writing instructional material, describe the actions in chronological order, one by one. At the same time, try to make each item independent of each other so that a person can return to it and not get confused.

If this is a selection article, then everything is even easier. Blocks are almost always independent of each other, so arrange them however you like. If this is not your case, first write about the important, and then about everything else.

Summarizing

In general, the main thing is logic and common sense.

We write

After you understand the structure, write. Write as you spell it, but keep a couple of important things in mind:

• One paragraph, one thought.It's the same principle as with blocks. Don't try to cram everything into one poor little paragraph at once. He will feel bad - he will swell up and will feverishly explain to the reader something incomprehensible. The latter will definitely not appreciate this.

• Cling thoughts to each other. The end of the previous thought is the beginning of the next. Here it is easier to give an example: “... the most popular type of automatic transmission is a torque converter. The torque converter transmits torque with the help of an oil flow that rotates the turbine and the reactor wheel ... ".

• Don't sit too long. Try to write well right away, but do not sit for an hour on one sentence. If you don't get it right the first time, move on. Everything will be fine in the next step.

You have finished writing the text, but it is not ready yet. Now the material needs to be sanded and polished.

Editing

It's even more difficult than writing material. It is necessary to correct errors and inaccuracies, clear the text of unnecessary elements, bring it to a readable form and add everything that was missed. Let's take a look at each point:

• Mistakes. Everything is clear here - you can trust yourself or use verification services. Most of all I like"Spelling" but it is paid. For 0 rubles, the text.ru verification service helps to do the same.

• Superfluous. The first edition of the text is always a stream of consciousness that needs to be streamlined. To do this, we proofread the text and ask ourselves how it can be shortened without compromising the meaning. An abstract but illustrative example: "the application performs system configuration" is shortened to "the application configures the system." The meaning is not lost, but it became easier to read. Many advise to drive the text into the Glavred service, but if you are not a professional text writer, it will only confuse you and make you hate the whole world. So just trust your intuition. You also need to remove duplicate information, and make vague wording clear and sharp.

• Structure. Once again we go through the structure: we check the division into paragraphs, insert additional headings, if appropriate.

• Lost. The first time it is difficult to give out all the necessary information at once. Something is forgotten, and something is invented later. These losses must be compensated. Example: you are proofreading a text and suddenly remember a thought that insidiously eluded you, or you come up with a new cool example. All this needs to be added.

Ready!

Now the text is finished. It remains to place the material on the site, add photos, graphs, tables or videos.

A few words about optimization

“Okay, but how, for example, to write an SEO article? What to do if you need to keep track of spamming, water content and uniqueness of the text? What if you need to enter completely wild requests? - ask those who want traffic (everyone). Do all the same. Yes, it will take more time, but it is a completely doable task.

Any text should be optimized for search engines. Because quality content can bring you a lot of traffic and customers. If you really want to, you can generally write articles “based on real events", - search queries. We at SEMANTICA call this "".

• Always think about the reader. Do not write difficult, you are not a writer. Don't write text for text's sake, make it useful. Use personal experience, but do not turn the article into an “expensive diary”: instead of the material about “how I went out with Andryukha and visited 15 bars in a night,” write “15 bars in district X: an overview and amazing stories.”

• Use examples. Everything is simple here - abstract concepts are difficult to try on. If you are writing about something, tell us how it is used in real life: "the power of the heater is XX watts - this is enough to warm a standard room in XX m 2".

• Be original. Do not mow under someone. Write as you spell it, all of these guidelines leave plenty of room for creativity. The main thing is not to go too far and do not make your Opus Magnum about everything in the world out of an article in a blog. At first useful information, then everything else.

Results

It was difficult, but we figured out how to write an article, found out the basic rules for writing interesting material and looked at how everything works with examples. The main thing is to think over the future opus to the smallest detail, optimize the text and double-check it ten times. Analyze the target audience, decide why you are writing at all, think over the structure and edit the finished article. Ideally, you will end up with good material that is interesting to read. And if you optimize the text correctly, you will get traffic.

I don't give a damn who and how starts the article.

Other scribblers scribble on hackneyed general boring phrases and don't realize that they've created a tedious thing that's only good for wiping their buttocks. Their articles do not finish reading, no matter what benefit they have invested there. Boring authors are not held in high esteem by the reader.

I like to start without rules. Because the rules are boring, and working on the system is not interesting. At the same time, I try to give the reader a benefit, arrange everything in a convenient structure and explain the essence with understandable examples.

In this article, I will give tips on how to start an article. I suggest you use them or throw the fuck out of your head, considering them crazy. But it's better to try it. Because the theme works. Let's go.

To get your head working in the right direction and make your intros interesting, start by cutting out the easy options from the outdated advertising world.

Don't start with a question

And everyone started asking questions in every article, on every site. Now this technique is so outdated and boring that it has become disgusting to the point of vomiting. Authors ask questions when the reader comes for answers.

Now it is done by everyone who does not know how to start an article so that the reader is interested. Or they just don't want to be bothered. After all, you need to open new books, websites, useful mailing lists, compare options and create your own.

If you refuse questions in the introduction, the article will already become a little more interesting.

Don't start with jokes

The jokes at the beginning of the article are the useless nonsense of a lazy, unsuccessful joker. They are added by those who wish, but do not know how to joke. They want to cheer up the reader so that he thinks that the author is a witty merry fellow who loves to make jokes.

Start with jokes only if you have a site with jokes. In other themes, they are not needed. This is a stupid attempt to amuse the reader.

You will especially screw up if the reader has already met your anecdote several times in other publications. Then he will laugh not from a joke, but from you. And, choking in ridiculous convulsions, with tearful eyes from laughter, he will find a cross in the corner of the browser tab and, with the last bodily impulses, will poke several times with a callused finger on the left mouse button to close this squalor and finally catch his breath.

Don't start with jokes. Well fuck him.

Don't start with quotes

The worst sin is to copy a quote at the beginning of an article.

This is done by guys who feel that the text is weak. Starting with a quote, they try to make the material more valuable.

And don't care whose quote. The main thing is to have a smart deep statement. And the deeper, the steeper.

Jobs, Gates, Zuckerberg, Durov and Ford are tough guys. But quoting them, the author says that he himself does not have enough convolutions to give out his brilliant idea.

Start with a quote only if you have a website with quotes or if the quote is from the person you are writing about.

Write the body first

I write the introduction when the main part of the article is ready. And I start with main idea that I want to convey to the reader.

It is easy to write a good introduction when, in the process of work, you have rethought the material from all sides.

Therefore, first write, reread and correct the main part, and therefore already think about the introduction.

An interesting introduction is obtained when you feel what the reader wants to see at the beginning of the article. And in order to feel it, you need to live the article several times: write, rewrite, edit, correct, add a little more, correct something, re-read, and correct it again. After such a process, a good introduction is born.

When the main part is ready, think about how to start the article. Choose a method from those below and make an introduction. And to level up, make different intros for each of the points and choose the best one.

Start simple: Describe the purpose of the article

This is the easiest way. Before writing the article, you had an idea that you wanted to tell the world. Tell us about this idea in the introduction.

Example:

Don't repeat my mistakes. I stepped on a nail in the shed and did not attach any importance to it. But in vain. The infection has gone. A little more and the leg would have to be cut off so that I would not die.

Now I will talk about possible consequences and I will give instructions on how to treat wounds so that there is no infection. The article was written based on the recommendations of my surgeon.

Start helpful: Describe a situation or problem

Start by describing the problem you want to solve. So the reader will see that you are on the same wavelength with him.

Example:

Not everyone knows how to treat wounds, scratches and abrasions. Or they think they know, but they do it wrong. Because of this, the wounds do not heal, and after a while they fester. To avoid this, regular and correct processing is needed. In a sad case, you will have to cut off the limbs in order to save a healthy part of the body.

In this article, you will learn how to treat wounds yourself, with what exactly and with what frequency.

The stories drag on. Especially if you have the skills and talent of a storyteller. I don’t know if I have such abilities, but I like to tell. My introduction would be something like this

Example:

Three days ago I stepped on a nail. It was painful. I yelled like there were 50 or more nails. Neighbors, thinking that I was killed, called the cops. Ten minutes later they arrived and I went out to them in blood and bandages. It took me a long time to explain what happened.

And I just went into the shed to get the tools. The light bulb burned out and I was too lazy to screw in a new one, because it would take ten minutes. And to take in the shed essential tool, only need 30 seconds. It is enough to take two steps and rummage around on the shelf with your hand. So I boldly stepped into the darkness and immediately stepped on a rusty nail sticking out of the board.

I did not give the wound special significance. Well, a puncture and a puncture - nothing special. Just bandaged and scored.

Three days later, the pain intensified and the leg swelled up. Went to the surgeon. Turns out it was an internal infection. The doctor said that the damaged tissue must be cut out, otherwise the leg would have to be amputated.

The operation could have been avoided if I had not treated the wound so lightly.

The surgeon explained in detail what needed to be done so that everything was ok. If you run into this kind of bullshit, you'll have the right checklist.

Start Emotionally: Brawl (18+)

The emotions that you show in the article evoke different feelings in the reader. But emotion almost always wants to finish reading.

Use emotions at the beginning of the article, if appropriate and if you know how to express emotions in the text. And if you don’t know how, try it too, otherwise you won’t learn.

Sometimes I like to swear, but it's not necessary. It's just how I'm made. There are other ways to express emotions.

Example:

Fuck, the surgeon wanted to cut off my leg.

Sometimes my level of dolbebism oversteps the bounds. A week ago, I stepped on a rusty nail in the shed because I was too lazy to screw in a new light bulb and went to look for a hammer in the dark.

I haven't felt this much pain since I was a teenager stealing pears from someone else's garden and the watchman put a piece of salt in my ass with a shotgun.

Three days later, the leg was swollen. I went to the doctor, and he said that if you do not cut off the infected tissue, you will have to fuck up the leg. There was no choice. Lay down for surgery.

Everything went well. Now I am lying in the ward and writing this article for you.

The surgeon told me how to treat wounds after cuts with rusty objects so that there was no such garbage.

See what needs to be done.

More on the topic. Sasha Volkova offers to sharply introduce the reader to the topic, and Maxim Ilyakhov advises at the beginning of the article to attract attention, establish authority and indicate benefits.

This article has no rules. I don't like rules. You can do anything to start an article and make it interesting. Borders in the head.

The main thing is to love the reader. Try variations, practice, improvise.