by Katy Kauffman @KatyKauffman28

I never get tired of looking at my mother’s sideboard. Each season, she “scrapbooks” it, decorating the shelves with gorgeous dishes, flowers, and greenery. The details capture my attention, and the loveliness feels like home.

For Christmas, pine branches and holly sprigs peek out between ivory dinner plates outlined in gold. Glittering, golden trees topped with stars sit on the walnut-colored wood. A beautiful collage of colors and textures greet me each time I enter the kitchen.

When we write, we don’t exactly decorate our pages with dishes and greenery. But we create a collage of interest. Our titles draw readers in, and our details hold their attention. Paragraphs of hope, strategies, and truths show them what life can be like with God, a life that we ourselves are striving to possess and maintain. The encouragement we share feels like home, and we greet them as a friend each time they enter one of our books.  

Just as most people expect homes, shopping malls, and town squares to be decorated for Christmas, readers expect to find something in our books that captures their attention. Something that makes them sit up and want to learn more. “Boring,” “flat,” and “cold” don’t belong on sideboards or in books. It can be an art form to exchange limp wording for vibrant phrasing. To switch sentence order for the most effective persuasions. And to sprinkle golden stardust into each paragraph. So how can we create reader appeal in our writing?

Create reader interest with these three ways, and give your audience reason to read every page, chapter, and book you write.

Craft a main idea that builds on an unforgettable slant and meaningful takeaway. 

We can avoid “obvious,” “factual,” and “stiff” in our writing by first starting with a captivating main idea. What topic do you love to write about? What aspect of that topic can you share in a fresh or meaningful way? Giving the why or the how behind a principle or a call to action, creates reader interest. What meaningful principle can your readers take away with them and apply to their daily lives? 

Next, think about your lead-in and the slant for your whole piece of writing. Is there a personal story that would show your own struggle to achieve your main point? Seeing how God was there for you and guided you to victory, could help your readers depend on Him for the same kind of victory. 

Is there a unique illustration found in nature or a sermon you’ve heard that is the perfect lead-in for your message? Maybe a word picture in Scripture could provide just the right slant for your writing. Once you pinpoint the takeaway you want to share, hunt for just the right lead-in to capture your readers’ attention. Use aspects of that story or metaphor throughout your writing to reinforce your main point. Un-boring. 

Share stories that “show, don’t tell” and offer takeaway for your readers. 

A story can be meaningful to us, but will the reader care about the details we’re sharing? Whether it’s a story in our lead-in or further down in our writing to reinforce a point, we need stories that allow the reader to visualize the scenes, care about the people involved, and learn from what happened. 

You’ve probably heard it said—show, don’t tell. Let the reader experience a story. If you stepped back into a personal story, what do you see? What do you hear? What do you feel? Phrase the story like a novel to let the reader step into the scene, feel the struggle, and want the victory. A story that hits home with our target audience will “paint” a scene they can relate to, and share similar feelings they’ve experienced and lessons that they need. Streamline the details so you share what best serves your purpose—to illustrate, warn, guide, or encourage. 

Structure your flow of thought to add deeper understanding, ways of living out the main point, or reinforcements for your central idea.

Keeping a train of thought on its tracks throughout our writing is a hard job. Hold the reader’s interest by traveling deeper into the meaning of a verse or a particular word in Scripture that offers great application. Create an interesting flow of thought by making a list of three to five ways to live out your main idea. Place stories and cross-references in your outline that reinforce your message. Then the train is not likely to jump the tracks and lose the reader in a wilderness of ideas and details. 

Which of these ways of creating reader interest do you find the most rewarding? The most challenging? Tell us in the comments, and may God bless each piece of your writing with creativity and some sparkle. 

Katy Kauffman is an award-winning author, an editor of Refresh Bible Study Magazine, and a co-founder of Lighthouse Bible Studies. She loves connecting with writers and working alongside them in compilations, such as Feed Your Soul with the Word of God, Collection 1 which is a 2020 Selah Awards finalist. She recently started The Lighthouse Connection, a monthly writers’ newsletter including writing tips, inspiration to write, and news of submission opportunities.

In addition to online magazines, Katy’s writing can be found at CBN.com, thoughts-about-God.com, and three blogs on writing. She loves to spend time with family and friends, take acrylic painting classes online, and do yard work in the morning sun. Connect with her at her blog, Winning the Victory, and on Facebook and Twitter.