New Media Writing Guide, the secret to writing articles with over 100,000 views!

Writing is not a sudden burst of inspiration; there is a method behind it.

1. Hot Topics
2. Collect materials and determine the core idea
3. Building an outline
4. Text Filling
5. Beginning and End
6. Article revision

01. Hot Topics

Full of passion, I sat in front of my computer, thinking that I must write an article today, until the soul-searching question of “What to write today?” brought me back to reality. I bit my nails, scrolled through Douyin, checked Weibo, and looked for inspiration. When I looked up, it was dark again. Just like yesterday, nothing was written.

Determining the topic is the prerequisite for starting writing. How to choose a topic? What kind of content should be written in a public account? The previous article has elaborated on this in 7,000 words, so I will give a brief summary here. For details, please see What content should be written in the official account? What to do if you have no inspiration for a topic?

I have the habit of reading articles with more than 100,000 views and small-time popular articles every day. After reading more, I gradually discovered that although their content and style are different, the underlying logic of the topic selection is the same.

Attention: The more target readers the topic covers and the more interested they are in the content, the greater the possibility that the article will go viral.

Novelty: A dog biting a person is not news, but a person biting a dog is. Clichés are meaningless. Readers want to read fresh content that they have never seen before.

Sense of value: trigger resonance, subvert inherent cognition, provide new knowledge, offer new solutions to problems, comfort emotions, and provide hot information. Excellent topics should have at least one of these.

Topic timing: Hot topics have their own explosive points, so you should follow them, but don’t follow them randomly. Follow them in a way that is in line with the positioning of the official account. When chasing, either the speed is fast or the perspective is new.

The growth path map is a great tool for topic selection. It can infer corresponding topics based on the various problems encountered by readers in their growth path and arrange them logically.

Taking the public account operation teaching public account as an example, the value that readers want is the practical knowledge of public account operation, and they want to get started with public account operation or further advance.

Then we can list the various skills that a novice needs to master to advance to advanced public account operation, and then extend the corresponding topics from the specific skills.

If you want to achieve outstanding results when following hot topics, you must avoid topics that are too common. The white triangle topic selection method is particularly suitable for breaking conventional thinking when chasing hot topics.

Draw two triangles, fill in keywords related to the target group in one triangle, and fill in hot keywords in the other triangle, and then rearrange and combine them to get good topics that cannot be obtained under normal logic.

"What are those Internet people doing who cannot go home during the Spring Festival due to the epidemic? 》
How to be more efficient when writing articles at home? 》
"How can we follow the hot topic of epidemic more meaningfully?" 》
《Foreign New Media Operation VS Domestic New Media Operation》
"In the context of the epidemic, should we switch to new media?" 》
"The Isolation of Internet People in Shijiazhuang"
"Income dropped sharply due to the epidemic, and new media became my side job"
"During the Spring Festival, I taught my parents to shoot videos and post them on TikTok"
"Hebei, an Internet desert? 》
…

02. Collect materials and determine the core idea

The material is the flesh and blood of the article. Through the portrayal of materials, characters can be made more three-dimensional, viewpoints more convincing, articles more realistic, and reading more enjoyable. If the whole article is just about reasoning and there is no material to support its argument, it will become just sloganeering and will sound dry to read.

To collect materials, you can start from platforms such as Zhihu, Weibo, Douban, Toutiao, Douyin, etc.

However, compared to last-minute collection, I prefer daily accumulation. Build a material library and put high-quality articles, sudden inspirations, and golden sentences into it, which will save you a lot of time when writing articles next time.

After collecting materials, determine the theme of the article. The idea is extracted from the materials, and then the materials are found based on the idea.

If you want a high number of reposts, your article must appeal to the readers’ emotions. In the vast ocean of information, only extreme emotions can touch readers. Such as extreme anger, extreme sadness, extreme love, extreme yearning, extreme anxiety, extreme patriotism...

This means that the intention must be extreme. One must either completely agree with or completely oppose a phenomenon. One must never be a "rationalist" and please neither side. Remember, readers in the new media age are extreme, irrational, and easily moved.

This is particularly true for public accounts that sell emotions:

"Youth Courtyard"'s "If it weren't for the wildfires in Australia, I wouldn't have known that China was so awesome 33 years ago! ”, the whole article sells patriotic sentiments and has been read 23 million times.

I guess when their editor was writing the article, he must have collected a lot of materials related to the wildfires in Australia and China, and determined the concept of "extreme patriotism" from them. Then, based on the theme, see if there is any material related to "patriotism" and whether it can arouse strong emotions. If not, collect materials specifically for this theme.

Although this approach is effective, it is only reflected in reading data. The value of the article is not strong and is almost zero to readers.

I have always believed that if readers trust you and are willing to spend time and brainpower reading your articles, you should always give them some truly valuable content, or at least the values ​​​​intentions should be positive.

03. Build an outline

Have you ever encountered this situation: there are too many things to write, but you don’t know where to start; you stumble in writing, forgetting the end after writing the beginning; the logic of the article is confusing and makes no sense.

Then I guess that you definitely haven't developed the good habit of making an outline before writing an article. The material is the flesh and blood, and the outline is the skeleton, which can make the overall logic of the article clearer and the writing smoother.

Parallel structure

Introduce the main idea at the beginning of the article, support it through multiple cases (usually more than 5) in the main text, and summarize and sublimate it at the end.

This structure focuses on the quality of the material and cases. The more exciting the case, the stronger the readers' willingness to forward it. Suitable for opinion articles and emotional articles that present partial cases.

"Thank You for Loving Me", which has been read 40 million times by "Visual Magazine", has the following central idea: The world is not perfect, but there are always people who love you, and it feels great to be loved by others. The film is supported by 17 pictures and the touching stories about "love" behind them.

"GQ Lab"'s "The Naughty Middle Class Will Never Have a Good New Year" has an article whose central idea is: The middle class celebrates the New Year in the same place in all kinds of weird ways. In the middle, 12 typical scenes are listed in the form of pictures + text, which is very interesting.

Overall structure

Parallelism uses cases to support the central idea, while the general-specific-general structure uses sub-views (preferably 3-4) to support the central idea, progressively arguing the core idea. Sub-viewpoints must be convincing so that readers will believe them. This structure is suitable for practical articles, hot articles, emotional articles, opinion articles, etc.

"Shiyi" wrote "Chow Yun-fat: When a person lives his life to the fullest, he must live a simple and frugal life." The core idea of ​​the article is: Chow Yun-fat is very rich, but very simple. The argument is made using three progressive sub-views.

Sub-viewpoint 1: Give examples to illustrate that he is very simple in terms of food, clothing, housing and transportation.

Sub-viewpoint 2: Just taking the birthday incident as an example, it shows that he is very simple.

Sub-viewpoint three: His hobbies such as mountain climbing, photography, and film-making show that he is not only simple, but also lives a transparent life.

The final conclusion is a summary: The happiness of life lies in simplicity and plainness.

The above is the basic general structure. Writing about people, events, and comments also have their own structures, which we will talk about in subsequent articles.

Whether it is a parallel structure or a general-specific-general structure, the combination of materials must be logically linked. If there is no connection in the middle, the reading will be confusing and the experience will be very bad.

• Time sequence: Cases of material that happened before are placed first, and cases of material that are happening now are placed last.
• Importance: important first, unimportant last, or vice versa.
• Area scope: Write this place first, then write another place after that.
• Theme of the article: Arrange the items in order according to how closely they relate to the theme of the article. Write about the ones that are farther away first, then the ones that are closer, and so on, layer by layer.
• Cause and effect: Write the cause first, then the result and impact.

04. Text filling

The materials and outline are the foundation, and the language of the article is the structure above. Whether it can attract readers depends entirely on it.

The language should be free of typos and grammatical errors, and the sentences should be fluent to ensure that readers have no reading difficulties. On this basis, there should be a "sense of conversation and dialogue", just like talking to relatives, friends, colleagues and classmates, so as to bring readers closer.

Many people like to use flowery words when writing. I wish I could add an adjective to every noun, an adverb to every verb, and a lot of descriptive sentences. Every article has a point or idea to express. Too many words will overshadow them and make readers confused about what the article is trying to express.

Time passes by, people and horses do not stay, looking back at the eternal waves of history, wind and smoke rise suddenly. Facing the eastward flowing water, facing the rising sun, I wander alone in the beautiful wind. The newly formed cicada pupae miss the passing midsummer, remembering the beauty of the water and the vicissitudes of life on the other side of the millet field.

The above passage uses a lot of words. At first glance, the writing style is beautiful, but if you read it carefully, you will find that it is all nonsense and you have no idea what it means.

You have read the Book of Songs, right? Have you heard the harmonious singing of the 雎九? Do you smell the fragrance of rice, wheat and soil? Have you felt the magic of the sickle cutting off the wheat stubble in one motion? This music has been sung by the Bailu River and danced in pavilions under the moon from generation to generation. It represents the peace, tranquility and steadiness that is unique to Chinese civilization.

Thus, we see groups of people carrying hoes, their clothes wet with dew, forging greatness in the fragrance of wheat, and Chinese culture making a grand appearance and being chanted from generation to generation.

Without their hands, feet, their passionate tongues and brains, where would I go to find such beautiful mountains and rivers?

This passage is also written in an elegant style. What is the difference between the two? Obviously, we can understand and know what the author wants to express, and every sentence has a point.

When we write, every paragraph, every sentence and even every word must revolve around the theme and have meaning. Blindly showing off will ruin the article.

The "curse of knowledge" should also be avoided as much as possible. Once we know something, we can no longer imagine what it looks like to someone who doesn’t know it. When we want to explain what we know to others, it is difficult for us to fully explain what we know to the other party due to information asymmetry.

We think many professional terms and nouns, such as user perspective, account positioning, user value, interest bait, PV, UV, DAU, etc., are very simple, but they are like incomprehensible books to readers who don’t understand them.

Therefore, when writing articles, especially articles with practical content, you should predict the readers' level of cognition in advance, treat the readers as novices, don't be afraid of being long-winded, and be as detailed as possible.

It is also important to use accurate and specific words. When many people write "spring", they think of the return of swallows and a riot of colour; when they write "crowds", they think of crowds of people. These are the results of laziness.

The spring scenery in the south and the north is different, and even the scenery in different cities, different corners, and different times is different. Using ambiguous words will only give readers a sense of falsehood and make them unable to feel the truth. The same goes for describing “crowded” people. What are people wearing, how are their movements and expressions, and how do they react when being squeezed?

This passage from How the Wall Street Journal Tells Stories vividly illustrates the importance of using precise, specific words:

The author should carefully examine every noun he uses. Some nouns appear to be very specific, but they are not. It was with this cautious attitude that his "passenger ship" became a "700-foot luxury passenger ship", the latter being more specific and vivid than the former.

His "reaction" becomes "fear, hatred, suspicion, enthusiasm, disgust" or some other more realistic expression.

If he was describing a battle, he would first ask himself whether "battle" or "skirmish" was a more accurate term.

If concrete nouns made his story clear, concrete verbs added life and depth, as in this passage about a fiery politician:

"Don't think I'm a lunatic!" the mayor roared.

Great, we can immediately feel the mayor's bad temper.

Some authors always choose words that are weak and have general meanings instead of specific and powerful words. This is of course wrong. However, there are still some authors who pile up their articles with fancy words, giving the articles a false and exaggerated feeling.

For them, any temporary difficulty will turn into a "crisis", any contradiction is a "difficult dilemma", and any modification to the White House drafted documents will be a "major blow" to the president.

Such authors should consider not how to strengthen the article's power, but how to reduce its level of exaggeration. They cheapen the value of the article. If there really is a crisis, how can they distinguish this real crisis from the false crisis they created before? ——“Mega crisis”?

Here’s a simple way to make your words more specific and accurate. When you only have a general word, you can directly search for its synonyms and then choose the appropriate one based on the meaning.

• "说" synonyms: shout, call, call, read, ask, answer, teach, rebuke, scold, roar
• "看" synonyms: aim, look, glance, stare, gaze, glare, gaze, stare, glance

05. Beginning and End

Andrew Stanton, the famous Pixar director, pointed out in his book "Clue to a Great Story": All good stories should do at the beginning: make a promise to the audience that this story is worth your rest of the time.

The beginning of an article is crucial as it will determine whether the reader is willing to continue reading. In a fragmented reading scenario, if you cannot point out the topic within the first 150 words and attract the reader's attention, then he will most likely close the article, and no matter how well you write later, it will be useless.

Scene opening

Describe a scene that a large number of readers have experienced together, either directly hit the pain point and hurt the heart, or paint a rosy picture to make readers yearn for it.

Mimi Meng "Don't! Again! advise! I! born! two! fetal! it’s done! "beginning:

It's wrong to hit relatives, I know.

But there are always some moments in life that make me want to take action.

Last night, I was in a meeting at the company, and someone in the relatives group @ me several times. I was scared to death, thinking something happened at home.

It turned out that it was a relative who I only spoke to a few times a year. Her daughter-in-law had just given birth to a second child, so she forwarded an article titled "Having a second child is the best gift for a child" @ me, and then earnestly advised me to have a second child as well.

She said, I know you are busy, but no matter how busy you are, why don’t you just leave the child at home and let your mother or your parents-in-law take care of him? You don't have to worry about it. Have a baby while you can. I'm doing this for your own good, blahblah...

Resonance opening

Render an emotion shared by readers and evoke strong resonance.

Visual Journal "Thank You for Loving Me" begins:

In this world, although life is always hard and bumpy, and love is always unsatisfactory, there is always someone appearing in your life and loving you with all his heart.

Conflict opening

Readers are most curious about conflicts, huge contrasts, and views or events that subvert the public's inherent cognition.

The beginning of "Chow Yun-fat: The ultimate life of a person must be simple and plain":

Do you know how much money Chow Yun-fat has made since his debut?

Some media estimated: 1.3 billion, some media estimated: 2.3 billion, and some media estimated: 3.4 billion.

But none of them were correct.

Some time ago, Chow Yun-fat's wife Chen Huilin revealed in a talk show: "A total of 5.6 billion." This net worth is simply shocking.

But what is even more shocking is what Fasao said next: "We have donated 100% of the money, set up a charity foundation, and completed the formalities."

Suspenseful beginning

Anticipate that the reader is interested in a certain piece of information and keep the reader in suspense or directly ask questions.

This is how the book "Satellite Designer Qu Yaobin: Spaceflight May Be the Most Adventurous Story of Our Time" begins:

Every rocket launch is a moment that makes hundreds of millions of people excited. With the continuous roar, the huge rocket rises from the ground, slowly rises, and goes straight into the sky in the brilliant flames at the tail.

Beidou, Deep Space, Long March 5, Kuaizhou... Flying into space with these spacecraft is our dream of exploring the universe and the future of mankind.

But have we ever thought about what the story behind the successful launch is?

Opening with leverage

Hot topics, trending searches, and highly-rated Zhihu content have been proven to be attractive to readers, and you can leverage this momentum at the beginning.

SHAPE YOUR LIFE ASAP The beginning of "Mr. He: Also Known as Other People's Senior Year Life":

It is almost difficult to connect the 22-year-old Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications student from Taiyuan, Shanxi, with Apple CEO Cook.

But just yesterday, the college student released a video of his exclusive interview with Cook, in which the two talked about Apple's innovative ideas, "how graduates can find jobs they love", and how to view and solve the digital divide between the elderly and children in poor areas...

The video became a hot topic as soon as it was released.

Story-like beginning

No one turns down a story. As long as it is exciting and interesting, it will naturally attract readers to read on.

The beginning of Cang Yi She's "The Death of a Poor College Student Who Bravely Helped Others: The Person He Saved Didn't Even Dare to Call the Police":

A homicide occurred in the downtown park, and Liu Sir was ordered to investigate the case. The deceased was a poor college student who was working part-time outside. She bravely saved a woman who was being robbed on the road and was stabbed to death by the robber. The woman she saved did not even dare to call the police and fled the scene. When the police found her, she was still hiding the truth and refused to tell it.

Finally, Sir Liu successfully caught the murderer with careful reasoning. The murderer turned out to be another college student. He fell into the abyss of crime because of a momentary thought, destroying others and himself.

There is a "Peak-End Principle" in psychology: the user's memory of the experience is determined by two factors: the feeling at the peak and the feeling at the end.

The same applies to articles. If you want readers to forward their articles after reading them, you have to arouse strong emotions in them at the end.

• Viewpoint: The end of the article summarizes the entire text and puts forward a thought-provoking viewpoint that is thought-provoking.
• Parallelism: The three-paragraph parallel sentences are powerful, setting off the atmosphere of the article and triggering resonance.
• Quote: Quote famous sentences and famous sayings to enhance the theme of the article or support your point of view.
• Appeal: Apply the article’s ideas to real life and call on readers to take action.

Of course, the combination is even more powerful:

In fact, we don’t have to open our hearts to everyone. There won’t be too much true empathy in this world. (Viewpoint)

You just need someone who can talk nonsense with you, he can be a friend, a relative, or a lover.

He can help you catch your breath while you are running, can give you a moment of relaxation when you get home from get off work, and can allow you to freely relieve your long-suppressed mood. (parallelism)

Writer Su Qin once said: "Happiness is probably finding someone who is willing to listen to your nonsense." (Quote)

If you meet such a person, please remember and cherish him/her. (call)

06. Article revision

Hemingway believed that the first draft of any article was shit.

Many people think that revising a manuscript is a waste of time, but it is actually of great significance. When we write articles, we write single sentences and paragraphs, focusing on single points. "I cannot see the true appearance of Mount Lu because I am inside it." When you are busy pondering part of the content, it is difficult to see the whole picture of the article. The revision is to look at the article as a whole.

The following are the specific steps for revision:

1. Theme

Only if the bullet hits the bull's eye will it not deviate. The first step in revising a manuscript is to determine whether the various parts of the article have gone off topic and whether they are consistent with the original writing goals.

2. Structure

If readers are confused after reading the text, there is most likely a problem with the structure. Think about whether the logic between each section is connected and smooth.

3. Materials

The material determines the excellence of the article. Examine whether the material is relevant to the theme, how rich it is, and whether there are better alternatives.

4. Paragraphs

Are the logic between each paragraph consistent? Is it difficult to read? Is there a better way to express it? Can it be streamlined?

5. Sentences

Can the sentence be shortened? Is it redundant in the paragraph or theme? Can it be simplified? Do adjectives and adverbs have a meaning? Does it exist to express the theme, or is it just a show of skill?

6. Words

Are the words used specific and clear? Are there any general and abstract words used? Can it give readers a clear sense of the picture?

7. Streamline

Without changing the logic and coherence of the sentence, eliminate all unnecessary words, such as "de", "le", "shi", "this, that", "ah, ne", "because, so, but", "very, extremely", "how, how", etc.

After revising the manuscript, remember to read the entire text to ensure that the theme is clear, the logic is coherent, and the sentences are fluent.

In fact, all the talk is nonsense and useless. If you want to write, but are still hesitating about this and that and are unable to start writing.

Writing, no matter how badly you write, is still writing, and it can help you improve your writing skills. The more you write, the better it will naturally be. If I don’t write it down, I will continue to worry about it, and I will still be worried after 3 months.

What you should do is not to tell the life you have experienced, but to live the life you tell.

Author: Tomato Operation

Source: Tomato Operation