- Make your ideas realistic and believable: No matter how good your ideas may seem, if readers don't perceive them as realistic or believable, they won't buy into them. It is critical to connect with readers' experiences and expectations if you want them to care about your ideas. The truer your words are to readers' own perceptions, the more impact they will have. Give your ideas a practical application to your readers' lives. Think about how your writing will create meaningful experiences for your readers and how easily readers will be able to connect with what you're saying. That connection is a key ingredient to creating appeal.
- Fully develop your ideas: Half-baked ideas have little appeal for readers. Readers depend on writers to come to the page prepared to present fully developed ideas for them to consider. This means offering multiple perspectives and giving equal weight to them in order to make your writing fair and balanced. It requires you to complete thorough research and be as knowledgeable as you can be about your subject matter. It also requires you to have given critical thought to your subject so you can guide readers through the weave of multiple perspectives and help lead them to their own conclusions. Carefully thought out writing is a major step toward creating appeal.
- Write with a driving force: Purposeless writing is both confusing and uninteresting to readers. It is absolutely critical that you are clear about what you're writing and why you're writing it. Without this guiding purpose, your writing will wander aimlessly across the page and be of little value to readers. If you're not clear about your purpose or what is driving you to write about your subject, readers won't be clear either. Beyond having a clear purpose, make sure every word you write contributes to that purpose. If it doesn't directly promote and develop your purpose, it's a distraction, and you should leave it out. Clarity of purpose is a critical component of creating appeal.
- Challenge your readers: Writing that doesn't challenge readers' thinking holds little appeal for them. One of your primary jobs as a writer is to challenge your readers to think, to understand, or perhaps to change in some significant way. You can do this by asking, and sometimes answering, provocative questions - by stirring the pot, so to speak. Present readers with an unusual or difficult situation and force them to consider how they would react or feel if they were caught up in that scenario. Poke their psyches and ask them to explore their inner selves. This kind of direct challenge to readers is essential to creating appeal.
- Be creative: Tired writing makes for tired readers. You want to appeal to readers by energizing them with all the creativity you can bring to bear on your writing. Come at your subject from a new angle, maybe one readers would never think of on their own. Use fresh language by avoiding cliches, overuse of descriptors and awkward sentence structures. Instead use crisp words and phrases, active voice and clear, concise sentence structure. Think about an unusual presentation, maybe a different format or structure than would normally be used with your subject. Do whatever you can to surprise and intrigue your readers. It will pay off as a surefire method for creating appeal.
Your writing can be more appealing to readers by implementing some simple strategies that you can initiate now, no matter what your experience level. Meeting readers' expectations with realistic and believable writing that is fully developed and creatively presented will have tremendous appeal for readers. Presenting readers with a driving force and a critical challenge will keep them hooked and wanting more. Clear, fresh writing that tickles their ears and makes them sit up and listen is the most appealing of all. You already have all these tools at your disposal. All that's left is your drive to use them. Write with appeal and your readers will thank you.
