Use Tension to Write More Powerfully
If you're not willing to work at the discipline of writing, you may as well quit blogging right now.
▲ See what I did there?
That's called tension. I'm not telling you to quit. I'm asking you to keep reading.
I speak publicly to hundreds of people every week. The last thing I want is tension to hang between me and the room full of listeners.
At least, it seems like it would be the last thing I'd want. But in reality, I look for ways every week to create tension, on purpose!
See, tension is a mechanism that grabs the listener and forces them to think about the situation, hoping desperately for relief. And hopefully, in the rest of the talk, that's what I'll deliver.
Relief. Answers. Hope.
I believe the same is true in writing. Tension is a powerful mechanism to create between the writer and the reader.
People rarely get offended at the immediate statement that creates the tension. Instead, they bow up to see what's next. They might brace themselves. They may even begin to prepare a response in their heads before having the whole piece of content.
But they're still reading, and that's the point.
Between the title and the closing paragraph, you're going to want to call people to action at some point, right? To leave a comment... buy a product... share the post... or take some kind of action on the content they've just consumed.
It's far easier to get people to take action in the moment they feel relief from the tension you created earlier.
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Recent Comments
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I learned from this post Brandon and m saving it. Yes you have to step it up to get attention from more and more jaded audiences!
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Great little article!