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[Ep 213]\n\nIf you didn\u2019t click to read this first sentence, I failed.\n\nIf we want to hook readers and hold their attention so they read all the way to the end, we have to generate an intriguing title or headline.\nLure Readers with Your Title\nBooks, chapters, articles, essays, poems: they all need names or titles that invite the reader to stop skimming and scrolling and think, \u201cHm. I wonder what this is about?\u201d or \u201cOh, wow, I need this information.\u201d\n\nI opened up Feedly when I was preparing this article and stopped on an article at The Write Practice titled \u201cHow to Find the Core Message of Your Writing\u201d because it was clear and seemed relevant to the kinds of things I like to read.\n\nBut I also stopped on an article by Emily P. Freeman: \u201cHow to Find (and Become) A Good Listener.\u201d That sounded useful to help me as a coach and to help me improve relationships with family and friends.\n\nOr consider James Clear\u2019s book Atomic Habits. The main title intrigues me with that word \u201catomic\u201d connected to \u201chabits.\u201d His subtitle is \u201cAn Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones.\u201d Then he includes a tagline that clarifies it further: \u201cTiny Changes, Remarkable Results.\u201d That sounds like a doable approach to the topic of habits, doesn\u2019t it? He hooked me with his title and subtitle combo.\n\nWe have to entice our readers to click on the link or open the book by capturing that first concept in a few words that hint at or outright reveal the subject, topic, theme, or problem we\u2019ll address in the piece.\n\n\nHook Your Readers with Attention Grabbers\nLet\u2019s say you nailed it\u2014you lured in your readers with the headline.\n\nNow it\u2019s time to hook them\u2014to grab them by the throat, as novelists often say. Bring on the attention grabber: it\u2019s that first line or two that will keep them reading.\n\nWhen I taught composition to high school students, I\u2019d offer attention-grabber ideas like:\n\n \ta startling statistic\n \ta quote\n \ta question\n \tan intriguing statement or claim\n \ta story (e.g., an anecdote that stands alone, a personal story, or someone else\u2019s story)\n\nThat article about finding the core message of your writing starts, \u201cWhy do you write?\u201d\u2014a question any writer will instinctively answer, at least in his head.\n\nSo the author, Joe Bunting, has probably hooked us. Our mind is engaged with the question. It\u2019s a good attention-grabber.\n\nEmily P. Freeman\u2019s article on finding and becoming a good listener has an epigraph\u2014a quote from Dr. Larry Crabb about listening to each other\u2014followed by the beginning of the actual article. She starts with a story:\nIt\u2019s 2012, and there\u2019s a stack of brochures in the little room I type in. I keep staring over at them, rereading their invitation, \u201cTo know more about you: If you would like to be informed of upcoming events\u2026\u201d\n\nI reach over, and I turn the plastic holder to face the wall. I cannot keep reading that same brochure over and over again.\nWhat\u2019s going to happen? Why is this brochure featured so prominently in this story? Is she going to take action? Is it going to change her? What does this brochure have to do with listening?\n\nYou can see how stories are great for hooking readers\u2014they\u2019re great attention-grabbers. They awaken curiosity and open a loop that we must close. We want to know what happens and how it ends.\n\nSo Emily has hooked me.\n\nYou, too, can use stories. And here\u2019s a bonus tip\u2014if you start far enough into a situation, the action of a story engages and hooks the reader, but you can leave it hanging so that you complete the story in the conclusion. That provides closure that satisfies and gratifies the reader. It feels like you\u2019ve come full circle.\n\nBut for them to get to the end, you\u2019ve got to hold him.\n\nFirst you hook them, then you hold them.\nHold Your Reader\u2019s Attention\nTo hold the reader isn\u2019t easy. We\u2019re battling for his or her attention, and we all know the long list of distractions that can pull a reader away at any moment.\n\nHere are some tips.