Two tips to make your article interesting and not original

Believe that the copy you write is actually pretty good

But we can make it better

Just to make the article more interesting

Let’s take a look at a picture first: This is a matrix for analyzing text. You can use this matrix to measure which quadrant your article is in.

Interesting text: The narrative form is very good, the rhythm and paragraph structure of the article are also very good, and the content is rich, lively and interesting.

Cliché Text: The "I Have a Friend" series, in which form outweighs content, falls into cliché.

Obscure text: The writing is difficult and obscure, making the readers feel unfathomable. Some of the writers are truly masters, while others simply cannot speak.

Poor writing: a youth without form or substance.

The so-called form refers to the techniques and methods used in telling the article. The exact same storyline or plot can have completely different effects due to the different telling techniques used by the narrator. The same is true for other art forms:

The same song "My Heart Will Go On" will be extremely moving when sung by Celine Dion, but if I sing it, I will definitely be reported by my neighbors. A good crosstalk artist can turn even a boring menu into a crosstalk work – "Reading the Menu".

Of course, content is also very important. Blindly pursuing form without considering whether the content of the article is interesting and informative will only lead to formalism where form is more important than content. Most of the articles on the Internet are of this type.

Good article, looking forward to good storytelling. Here are two tips for making your articles interesting.

First, how to make the dialogue between characters interesting? One effective way is to increase the subtext of the article.

What I mean is that when people usually speak, they don’t always say what they mean. In fact, words often fail to express what one means and what one says is not sincere. Thinking "I hate you" in my heart, but saying "I love you" with my mouth.

If what you say is different from what you think, readers will be interested.

You cannot write:

Man: I love you, don’t leave me.

Woman: No, I want to find a rich second-generation.

You have to write:

M: Tomorrow is your birthday. I bought some spare ribs, star anise and lotus root to make your favorite lotus root stewed with spare ribs... Can you come back early tomorrow?

Woman: He invites me to Michelin tomorrow.

M: Then I’ll put it in the refrigerator and cook it the day after tomorrow, ok?

Woman: We are going to Maldives the day after tomorrow.

male:……

Woman: Don’t contact me anymore.

You cannot write:

Official: Give me one million and I will give you the project.

Businessman: Good!

You have to write:

Official: It’s not easy. Municipal construction must abide by the principles of openness and fairness. If I open this loophole for you, the people will point at my spine and scold me - this painting is good.

Businessman: Oh, this is a fake painting by Zhang Daqian, an imitation, it’s not worth much. I'll have someone put it back for you.

Hide the true meaning of the dialogue and let the characters speak human language. When the subtext is combined with the context, the effect will be revealed. Regarding this point, you can follow Zhihu user @写手K君. These two conversations are also quoted from her answers.

Similarly, another writing technique is to say the most with the fewest words. That is, the form is simple and the meaning is rich.

It just so happened that this morning I had an appointment with the copywriter of Hammer smartphone , Mr. Cao Wei. Below I will take one of Mr. Cao Wei’s copywriting as an example.

The original version of this slogan was "Beautiful and Powerful", to express that the Hammer phone is both beautifully designed and easy to use. Later I felt that the whole sentence was too bland and not good enough, so I had to overturn it and start over.

During a brainstorming session, someone blurted out “the pretty ones don’t look like the talented ones”. The meeting fell silent at that moment. Everyone was feeling the meaning of this sentence, and everyone knew in their hearts: This is it.

Why is this sentence so interesting? Let’s analyze it.

Comparing these two sentences, the second sentence has the word "not like", which creates a transition in the text structure, but no transition in the actual semantics. Instead, the original meaning is strengthened .

If the meaning of this sentence is fully interpreted, it should be: "Someone is so beautiful that people don't think he is a talented person, but in fact he is a talented person."

It is such a long sentence. When you see "not beautiful enough to look talented" , your mind automatically interprets it, but you don't see it with your eyes , so you will think "this sentence is interesting".

In this regard, Teacher Cao Wei concluded that "the deepest meaning comes not from what has been said, but from what has not been said."

Teacher Cao Wei has a small lecture on how to use copywriting to keep readers. It costs 9.9 yuan. I recommend you to listen to it. This is not an advertisement, so I won’t put a link.

Back to the content of the article, I have a deep understanding of this myself. I just posted a circle of friends some time ago, also talking about this:

I saw a beautiful woman wearing a mask yesterday. Today she took off the mask. Hmm, she looked so ordinary. A person's true beauty is not his or her own appearance, but the fantasy that exists in other people's hearts. Those who can create this kind of fantasy are the most attractive.

Like many painting masters, their works often have incompleteness, regrets, blank spaces, incomprehensible meanings, and a lot of imagination. But when you stay in front of such works, the door of imagination will often be opened, and you will reach a shore you never dreamed of.

At this point the master's trick was truly revealed; it turned out that "painting + reader's imagination" was their complete work. The heights of a master's work can be determined by the reader's imagination.

The article ends here, summarizing two techniques:

Adding subtext to the conversation

Say the most with the least words