how to make your article interesting

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• 13 Ways to Make Your Writing More Interesting to Read

There are numerous characteristics of a good essay: original thinking, a tight structure, balanced arguments, and many more .

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But one aspect often overlooked is that a good essay should be interesting . It should spark the curiosity of the reader, keep them absorbed, make them want to keep reading and learn more. A boring essay risks losing the reader’s attention; even if the points you make are excellent, a dull writing style or poor handling of a dry subject matter can undermine the positive aspects of the essay. The problem is that many students think that essays should be like this: they think that a dull, dry style is suited to the purposes of academic writing, and don’t consider that the teacher reading their essay wants to find the essay interesting. Academic writing doesn’t have to be – and shouldn’t be – boring. The good news is that there are plenty of things you can do to make your writing more interesting, even though you can only do so much while remaining within the formal confines of academic writing. Let’s look at what they are.

1. Be interested in what you’re writing about

If there’s one thing guaranteed to inject interest into your writing, it’s actually being interested in what you’re writing about. Passion for a subject comes across naturally in your writing, typically making it more lively and engaging, and infusing an infectious enthusiasm into your words – in the same way that it’s easy to chat knowledgeably to someone about something you find interesting. This makes it relatively easy to write interestingly about a subject you have a real passion for. However, problems arise when you’re forced to write an essay about subjects for which you lack enthusiasm. It’s difficult to conjure up passion for your least favourite subjects, and that will come across in your writing. There are steps you can take, though: here are some tips on writing about a subject you don’t enjoy.

• Adjust your mindset : convince yourself that there are no boring subjects. If the subject or essay comes across as boring, blame yourself; if you find yourself feeling negatively about it, try to find the interest in it. Think about how it relates to the real world and how important the subject is. Find interesting snippets of information about it and look at it from a new angle.
• Think about your reader : consider the fact that not everyone will find the subject as boring as you do. As you write, keep the reader in mind and imagine them to be the world’s biggest fan of this subject.
• Find the fans : if you find it impossible to get into the mindset of your audience, try Googling the subject to find forums, videos or blog posts in which the subject is discussed by people who do find it interesting. This will help you picture whom you’re writing for, and give you a different perspective on a subject you may not have found inspiring up to now.

2. Include fascinating details

Another factor that can make an essay boring is a dry subject matter. Some subjects or topic areas are naturally dry, and it falls to you to make the essay more interesting through your written style (more on this later) and by trying to find fascinating snippets of information to include that will liven it up a bit and make the information easier to relate to. One way of doing this with a dry subject is to try to make what you’re talking about seem relevant to the real world, as this is easier for the reader to relate to. In a discussion of a seemingly boring piece of legislation, for instance, you could make a comment along the lines of “if it were not for this legislation, none of us would enjoy the freedom to do such and such today”, or “Legislation A ultimately paved the way for Legislation B, which transformed criminal law as we know it.” Make it seem exciting!

3. Emulate the style of writers you find interesting

When you read a lot, you subconsciously start emulating the style of the writers you read. It’s therefore beneficial to read widely, as this exposes you to a range of styles and you can start to take on the characteristics of those you find interesting to read. If you feel engaged with a piece of writing, the writer must be doing something right! As you read, think consciously about what the writer is doing to hold your interest, perhaps underlining or copying out certain phrases, techniques, sentence structures and so on. Then apply their techniques to your own writing.

4. Write in the active voice

It’s the oldest trick in the book, but using the active rather than the passive voice will automatically make your writing more interesting to read. It results in more direct, energetic writing that makes the reader feel more ‘in the moment’. Unfortunately, many students employ the passive voice in the belief that it makes their writing sound more academic or intellectual; in fact, it makes their writing sound boring. Remember, the active voice is when the subject of the sentence “acts”, while the passive voice is when the subject is acted upon. Passive : It was concluded by the scientists that the methods used were… Active : The scientists concluded that the methods used were… The subject in this example is “the scientists” and the “act” they are carrying out is “concluding”. As you can see in this example, the active voice almost always results in neater and more elegant phrasing, which is more concise and enjoyable to read.

5. Borrow some creative writing techniques

There’s clearly a limit to the amount of actual ‘story-telling’ you can do when you’re writing an essay; after all, essays should be objective, factual and balanced, which doesn’t, at first glance, feel very much like story-telling. However, you can apply some of the principles of story-telling to make your writing more interesting. For example, just as the opening sentence or paragraph of a novel is incredibly important in capturing the attention of the reader early on, so the first paragraph of your essay is essential in making your reader want to continue reading it. Start with an attention-grabbing ‘hook’ to draw them in, such as a controversial statement, a tantalising snippet of information or a rhetorical question (more on these below). Here are some more techniques you can adopt from creative writing to improve your essays .

6. Think about your own opinion

Your essay is bound to be boring if all you do is paraphrase what everyone else says about something. A good essay – in humanities subjects, at least – incorporates the writer’s intelligent responses to what others say, and this critical consideration not only shows that you’re thinking at a high academic level, but it automatically adds more interest and originality to your writing. So, think independently and don’t be afraid to demonstrate that you’re doing as much.

7. Cut the waffle

Rambling on and on is boring, and almost guaranteed to lose the interest of your reader. You’re at risk of waffling if you’re not completely clear about what you want to say, or if you haven’t thought carefully about how you’re going to structure your argument. Doing your research properly and writing an essay plan before you start will help prevent this problem. Editing is an important part of the essay-writing process, so once you’ve done a first draft, edit out the waffle. Read through your essay objectively and take out the bits that aren’t relevant to the argument or that labour the point. As well as editing out chunks of text, it’s important to be economical with words – not using ten where five will suffice, and avoiding clunky phrases such as those outlined in this article . During the editing process, tighten up your phrasing by eliminating unnecessary words and reordering any sentences that read badly.

8. Using a thesaurus isn’t always a good thing

You may think that using a thesaurus to find more complicated words will make your writing more interesting, or sound more academic, but using overly high-brow language can have the wrong effect. It alienates the reader and makes you sound pompous, with the result that the essay is more laborious to read and the reader may quickly lose interest. Despite this, many undergraduates admit to deliberately over-complicating their language to make it sound more high-brow. If you want to keep your reader interested, keep your language clear and simple.

9. Avoid repetitive phrasing

Avoid using the same sentence structure again and again: it’s a recipe for dullness! Instead, use a range of syntax that demonstrates your writing capabilities as well as making your writing more interesting. Mix simple, compound and complex sentences to avoid your writing becoming predictable.

10. Use some figurative language

As we’ve already seen, it’s easy to end up rambling when you’re explaining difficult concepts, – particularly when you don’t clearly understand it yourself. A way of forcing yourself to think clearly about a concept, as well as explaining it more simply and engagingly, is to make use of figurative language. This means explaining something by comparing it with something else, as in an analogy. For example, you might use the analogy of water escaping from a hole in a bucket to explain the exponential decay of a radioactive substance, as the rate of depletion of both depends on how much remains, making it exponential. This gives the reader something familiar to visualise, making it easier for them to understand a new concept (obviously this will not be a new concept for the teacher who set your essay, but they will want to see that you can explain concepts clearly and that you have a thorough grasp of it yourself).

11. Avoid clichés

Clichés are overused words or phrases that make your writing predictable, and therefore less interesting. An example would be “at the end of the day”, but there are many such favourites of student essay-writers. Don’t forget that your teacher will have a stack of essays to read in one sitting; if you use the same tired expressions everyone else uses, your essay will blend in with all the others. Make it stand out by shunning the clichés you know your classmates will be using.

12. Employ rhetorical questions

One of the ways in which ancient orators held the attention of their audiences and increased the dramatic effect of their speeches was by making use of the rhetorical question. What is a rhetorical question? It’s essentially one you ask without expecting your audience to answer – one that you will answer yourself, like the one we asked in the previous sentence. This can be an effective way of introducing a new line of enquiry, or of raising questions that you’re going to address in more detail. A good place to use a rhetorical question is at the end of a paragraph, to lead into the next one, or at the beginning of a new paragraph to introduce a new area for exploration. The rhetorical question, “But is there any evidence to support X’s claim?” could, for instance, begin a paragraph that discusses evidence for an opinion introduced in the previous paragraph. What’s more, as we’ve already seen, you could use a rhetorical question as your ‘hook’ to lure readers in right at the beginning of your essay.

13. Proofread

Finally, you could write the most interesting essay a teacher has ever read, but you’ll undermine your good work if it’s littered with errors, which distract the reader from the actual content and will probably annoy them. Before you submit your essay, proofread it thoroughly to ensure that the grammar is elegant, the punctuation is perfect and the spelling is flawless. Don’t just use a spelling and grammar checker, as these don’t always pick up on all the errors.

Do you want to take your writing to the next level? Our Creative Writing summer school will teach you how to experiment with a number of different writing techniques, plan, edit and proofread your own work and introduce you to new concepts and ideas. 

Image credits: banner ; carousel ; rose ; scientists ; baby ; thesaurus ; hawk ; questions . 

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How to Write an Article: A Proven Step-by-Step Guide

Are you dreaming of becoming a notable writer or looking to enhance your content writing skills? Whatever your reasons for stepping into the writing world, crafting compelling articles can open numerous opportunities. Writing, when viewed as a skill rather than an innate talent, is something anyone can master with persistence, practice, and the proper guidance.

That’s precisely why I’ve created this comprehensive guide on ‘how to write an article.’ Whether you’re pursuing writing as a hobby or eyeing it as a potential career path, understanding the basics will lead you to higher levels of expertise. This step-by-step guide has been painstakingly designed based on my content creation experience. Let’s embark on this captivating journey toward becoming an accomplished article writer!

What is an Article?

An article is more than words stitched together cohesively; it’s a carefully crafted medium expressing thoughts, presenting facts, sharing knowledge, or narrating stories. Essentially encapsulating any topic under the sun (or beyond!), an article is a versatile format meant to inform, entertain, or persuade readers.

Articles are ubiquitous; they grace your morning newspaper (or digital equivalents), illuminate blogs across various platforms, inhabit scholarly journals, and embellish magazines. Irrespective of their varying lengths and formats, which range from news reports and features to opinion pieces and how-to guides, all articles share some common objectives. Learning how to write this type of content involves mastering the ability to meet these underlying goals effectively.

Objectives of Article Writing

The primary goal behind learning how to write an article is not merely putting words on paper. Instead, you’re trying to communicate ideas effectively. Each piece of writing carries unique objectives intricately tailored according to the creator’s intent and the target audience’s interests. Generally speaking, when you immerse yourself in writing an article, you should aim to achieve several fundamental goals.

First, deliver value to your readers. An engaging and informative article provides insightful information or tackles a problem your audience faces. You’re not merely filling up pages; you must offer solutions, present new perspectives, or provide educational material.

Next comes advancing knowledge within a specific field or subject matter. Especially relevant for academic or industry-focused writings, articles are often used to spread original research findings and innovative concepts that strengthen our collective understanding and drive progress.

Another vital objective for those mastering how to write an article is persuasion. This can come in various forms: convincing people about a particular viewpoint or motivating them to make a specific choice. Articles don’t always have to be neutral; they can be powerful tools for shifting public opinion.

Finally, let’s not forget entertainment – because who said only fictional work can entertain? Articles can stir our emotions or pique our interest with captivating storytelling techniques. It bridges the gap between reader and writer using shared experiences or universal truths.

Remember that high-quality content remains common across all boundaries despite these distinct objectives. No matter what type of writer you aspire to become—informative, persuasive, educational, or entertaining—strive for clarity, accuracy, and stimulation in every sentence you craft.

What is the Format of an Article?

When considering how to write an article, understanding its foundation – in this case, the format – should be at the top of your list. A proper structure is like a blueprint, providing a direction for your creative construction.

First and foremost, let’s clarify one essential point: articles aren’t just homogenous chunks of text. A well-crafted article embodies different elements that merge to form an engaging, informative body of work. Here are those elements in order:

• The Intriguing Title

At the top sits the title or heading; it’s your first chance to engage with a reader. This element requires serious consideration since it can determine whether someone will continue reading your material.

• Engaging Introduction

Next comes the introduction, where you set expectations and hint at what’s to come. An artfully written introduction generates intrigue and gives readers a compelling reason to stick around.

• Informative Body

The main body entails a detailed exploration of your topic, often broken down into subtopics or points for more manageable consumption and better flow of information.

• Impactful Conclusion

Lastly, you have the conclusion, where you tie everything neatly together by revisiting key points and offering final thoughts.

While these components might appear straightforward on paper, mastering them requires practice, experimentation with writing styles, and a good understanding of your target audience. 

By putting in the work to familiarize yourself with how to create articles and how they’re structured, you’ll soon discover new ways to develop engaging content each time you put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard!). Translating complex concepts into digestible content doesn’t need to feel daunting anymore! Now that we’ve tackled the format, our focus can shift to what should be included in an article.

What Should Be in an Article?

Understanding that specific items should be featured in your writing is crucial. A well-crafted article resembles a neatly packed suitcase – everything has its place and purpose.

Key Information

First and foremost, you need essential information. Start by presenting the topic plainly so readers can grasp its relevance immediately. This sets the tone of why you are writing the article. The degree of depth at this point will depend on your audience; be mindful not to overwhelm beginners with too much jargon or over-simplify things for experts.

Introduction

Secondly, every article must have an engaging introduction—this acts as the hook that reels your audience. Think of it as a movie trailer—it offers a taste of what’s to come without giving away all the details.

Third is the body, wherein you get into the crux of your argument or discussion. This is the point at which you present your ideas sequentially, along with supporting evidence or examples. Depending on the nature of your topic and personal style, this may vary from storytelling forms to more analytical breakdowns.

Lastly, you’ll need a fitting conclusion that wraps up all previously discussed points, effectively tying together every loose thread at the end. This helps cement your main ideas within the reader’s mind even after they’ve finished reading.

To summarize:  

• Critical Information: Provides context for understanding
• Introduction: Sheds further light on what will follow while piquing interest  
• Body: Discusses topic intricacies using narratives or case studies
• Conclusion: Ties up loose ends and reemphasizes important takeaways

In my experience writing articles for beginners and experts alike, I found these elements indispensable when conveying complex topics articulately and professionally. Always keep them at hand when looking to produce written material.

How should you structure an article?

Crafting a well-structured article is akin to assembling a puzzle – every piece has its place and purpose. Let’s look at how to create the perfect skeleton for your content.

The introduction is your article’s welcome mat. It should be inviting and informative, briefly outlining what a reader can expect from your writing. Additionally, it must instantly grab the readers’ attention so they feel compelled to continue reading. To master the art of creating effective introductions, remember these key points:

• Keep it short and precise.
• Use compelling hooks like quotes or intriguing facts.
• State clearly what the article will cover without revealing everything upfront.

Moving on, you encounter the body of your piece. This segment expands on the ideas outlined in the introduction while presenting fresh subtopics related to your core story. If we compare article writing to crossing a bridge, each paragraph represents a step toward the other side (the conclusion). Here are some tips for maintaining orderliness within your body:

• Stick closely to one idea per paragraph as it enhances readability.
• Ensure paragraphs flow logically by utilizing transitional words or sentences.
• Offer evidence or examples supporting your claims and reinforce credibility.

As you approach the far side of our imaginary bridge, we reach an equally essential section of the article known as the conclusion. At this point, you should be looking to wrap your message up neatly while delivering on what was initially promised during the introduction. This section summarizes the main points, providing closure and ensuring readers feel satisfied.

Remember this golden rule when writing the conclusion: follow the  “Describe what you’re going to tell them (Introduction), tell them (Body), and then summarize what you told them (Conclusion).”  It’s a proven formula for delivering informative, engaging, and well-structured articles. 

One final tip before moving on: maintaining an active voice significantly enhances clarity for your readers. It makes them feel like they’re participating actively in the story unfolding within your article. In addition, it helps ensure easy readability, which is vital for keeping your audience engaged.

Tips for Writing a Good Article

A persuasive, engaging, and insightful article requires careful thought and planning. Half the battle won is by knowing how to start writing and make content captivating. Below are vital tips that can enhance your article writing skills.

Heading or Title

An audience’s first impression hinges on the quality of your title. A good heading should be clear, attention-grabbing, and give an accurate snapshot of what’s contained in the piece’s body. Here are a few guidelines on how to create an impactful title:

• Make it Compelling: Your title needs to spark interest and motivate readers to delve further into your work.
• Keep it concise: You want to have a manageable heading. Aim for brevity yet inclusiveness.
• Optimize with keywords: To boost search engine visibility, sprinkle relevant keywords naturally throughout your title.

By applying these techniques, you can increase reader engagement right from the get-go.

Body of the Article

After winning over potential readers with your catchy title, it’s time to provide substantial content in the form of the body text. Here’s how articles are typically structured:

Introduction:  Begin by providing an appealing overview that hooks your audience and baits them to read more. You can ask poignant questions or share interesting facts about your topic here.

Main Content:  Build on the groundwork set by your introduction. Lay out detailed information in a logical sequence with clear articulation.

Conclusion:  This reemphasizes the critical points discussed in the body while delivering a lasting impression of why those points matter.

Remember that clarity is critical when drafting each part because our objective here is to share information and communicate effectively. Properly understanding this approach ensures that the writing experience becomes creative and productive.

Step By Step Guide for Article Writing

How do you write an article that engages your readers from the first line until the last? That’s what most writers, whether beginners or seasoned pros are trying to achieve. I’ll describe a step-by-step process for crafting such gripping articles in this guide.

Step 1: Find Your Target Audience

First and foremost, identify your target readers. Speaking directly to a specific group improves engagement and helps you craft messages that resonate deeply. To pinpoint your audience:

• Take note of demographic attributes like age, gender, and profession.
• Consider their preferences and needs.
• Look into how much knowledge they are likely to possess concerning your topic.

Knowing this will help you decide what tone, language, and style best suits your readers. Remember, by understanding your audience better, you make it much easier to provide them with engaging content.

Step 2: Select a Topic and an Attractive Heading

Having understood your audience, select a relevant topic based on their interests and questions. Be sure it’s one you can competently discuss. When deciding how to start writing an article, ensure it begins with a captivating title.

A title should hint at what readers will gain from the article without revealing everything. Maintain some element of intrigue or provocation. For example, ‘6 Essentials You Probably Don’t Know About Gardening’ instead of just ‘Gardening Tips’.

Step 3: Research is Key

Good research is crucial to building credibility for beginners and experts alike. It prevents errors that could tarnish your piece immensely.

Thoroughly explore relevant books, scholarly articles, or reputable online resources. Find facts that build authenticity while debunking misconceptions that relate to your topic. Take notes on critical points discovered during this process—it’ll save you time when creating your first draft.

Step 4: Write a Comprehensive Brief

Having done your research, it’s time to write an outline or a brief—a roadmap for your article. This conveys how articles are written systematically without losing track of the main points.

Begin by starting the introduction with a punchy opener that draws readers in and a summary of what they’ll glean from reading. Section out specific points and ideas as separate headings and bullet points under each section to form the body. A conclusion rounds things up by restating key takeaways.

Step 5: Write and Proofread

Now comes the bulk of the work—writing. Respect the brief created earlier to ensure consistency and structure while drafting content. Use short, clear sentences while largely avoiding jargon unless absolutely necessary.

Post-writing, proofread ardently to check for typographical errors, inconsistent tenses, and poor sentence structures—and don’t forget factual correctness! It helps to read aloud, which can reveal awkward phrases that slipped through initial edits.

Step 6: Add Images and Infographics

To break text monotony and increase comprehension, introduce visuals such as images, infographics, or videos into your piece. They provide aesthetic relief while supporting the main ideas, increasing overall engagement.

Remember to source royalty-free images or get permission for copyrighted ones—you don’t want legal battles later!

Common Mistakes to Avoid in Article Writing

Regarding article writing, a few pitfalls can compromise the quality of your content. Knowing these and how to avoid them will enhance your work’s clarity, depth, and impact.

The first mistake often made is skimping on research. An article without solid underpinnings won’t merely be bland – it might mislead readers. Therefore, prioritize comprehensive investigation before penning down anything. Understanding common misconceptions or misinterpretations about your topic will strengthen your case. 

Next, sidestep unnecessary jargon or excessively complex language. While showcasing an impressive vocabulary might seem appealing, remember that your primary objective is imparting information efficiently and effectively.

Moreover, failing to structure articles effectively represents another standard error. A structured piece aids in delivering complex ideas coherently. Maintaining a logical sequence facilitates reader comprehension, whether explaining a detailed concept or narrating an incident.

A piece lacking aesthetic allure can fail its purpose regardless of the value of its text. That’s where images come into play. Neglecting them is an all-too-common mistake among beginners. Relevant pictures inserted at appropriate junctures serve as visual breaks from texts and stimulate interest among readers.

Lastly, proofreading is vital in determining whether you can deliver a well-written article. Typos and grammatical errors can significantly undermine professional credibility while disrupting a smooth reading experience.

So, when pondering how articles are written, avoiding these mistakes goes a long way toward producing high-quality content that embodies both substance and style. Remember: practice is paramount when learning how to write excellent material!

How to Write an Article with SEOwind AI Writer?

Harnessing the power of artificial intelligence has been a major step in many industries. One such significant tool is SEOwind AI Writer , which is critical for those curious about how to write an article leveraging AI. In this section, I’ll cover how you can effectively use SEOwind AI writer to create compelling articles.

Step 1: Create a Brief and Outline

The first step in writing an article revolves around understanding your audience’s interests and then articulating them in a comprehensive brief that outlines the content’s framework.

• Decide on the topic: What ideas will you share via your article?
• Define your audience: Knowing who will read your text significantly influences your tone, style, and content depth.
• Establish main points: Highlight the key points or arguments you wish to exhibit in your drafted piece. This helps create a skeleton for your work and maintain a logical flow of information.

With SEOwind:

• you get all the content and keyword research for top-performing content in one place,
• you can generate a comprehensive AI outline with one click,
• users can quickly create a title, description, and keywords that match the topic you’re writing about.

As insightful as it might seem, having a roadmap doubles as a guide throughout the creative process. SEOwind offers a user-friendly interface that allows the easy input of essential elements like keywords, title suggestions, content length, etc. These provide an insightful outline, saving time with an indispensable tool that demonstrates the practicality of article writing.

Step 2: Write an AI Article using SEOwind

Once you have a brief ready, you can write an AI article with a single click. It will consider all the data you provided and much more, such as copywriting and SEO best practices , to deliver content that ranks.

Step 3: Give it a Human Touch

Finally, SEOwind’s intuitive platform delivers impeccably constructed content to dispel any confusion about writing an article. The result is inevitably exceptional, with well-structured sentences and logically sequenced sections that meet your demands.

However, artificial intelligence can sometimes miss the unique personal touch that enhances relatability in communication—making articles more compelling. Let’s master adding individualistic charm to personalize articles so that they resonate with audiences.

Tailoring the AI-generated piece with personal anecdotes or custom inputs helps to break the monotony and bolster engagement rates. Always remember to tweak essential SEO elements like meta descriptions and relevant backlinks.

So, whether it’s enhancing casual language flow or eliminating robotic consistency, the slightest modifications can breathe life into the text and transform your article into a harmonious man-machine effort. Remember – it’s not just about technology making life easy but also how effectively we utilize this emerging trend!

Common Questions on how to write an article

Delving into the writing world, especially regarding articles, can often lead to a swarm of questions. Let’s tackle some common queries that newbies and seasoned writers frequently stumble upon to make your journey more comfortable and rewarding.

What is the easiest way to write an article?

The easiest way to write an article begins with a clear structure. Here are five simple steps you can follow:

• Identify your audience: The first thing you should consider while planning your article is who will read it? Identifying your target audience helps shape the article’s content, style, and purpose.
• Decide on a topic and outline: Determining what to write about can sometimes be a formidable task. Try to ensure you cover a topic you can cover effectively or for which you feel great passion. Next, outline the main points you want to present throughout your piece.
• Do the research: Dig deep into resources for pertinent information regarding your topic and gather as much knowledge as possible. An informed writer paves the way for a knowledgeable reader.
• Drafting phase: Begin with an engaging introduction followed by systematically fleshing out each point from your outline in body paragraphs before ending with conclusive remarks tying together all the earlier arguments.
• Fine-tune through editing and proofreading: Errors happen no matter how qualified or experienced a writer may be! So make sure to edit and proofread before publishing.

Keep these keys in mind and remain patient and persistent. There’s no easier alternative for writing an article.

How can I write an article without knowing about the topic?

We sometimes need to write about less familiar subjects – but do not fret! Here’s my approach:

• First off, start by thoroughly researching subject-centric reliable sources. The more information you have, the better poised you are to write confidently about it.
• While researching, take notes and highlight the most essential points.
• Create an outline by organizing these points logically – this essentially becomes your article’s backbone.
• Start writing based on your research and outlined structure. If certain aspects remain unclear, keep investigating until clarity prevails.

Getting outside your comfort zone can be daunting, but is also a thrilling chance to expand your horizons.

What is your process for writing an article quickly?

In terms of speed versus quality in writing an article – strikingly enough, they aren’t mutually exclusive. To produce a high-quality piece swiftly, adhere to the following steps:

• Establish purpose and audience: Before cogs start turning on phrase-spinning, be clear on why you’re writing and who will likely read it.
• Brainstorm broadly, then refine: Cast a wide net initially regarding ideas around your topic. Then, narrow down those areas that amplify your core message or meet objectives.
• Create a robust outline: A detailed roadmap prevents meandering during actual writing and saves time!
• Ignore perfection in the first draft: Speed up initial drafting by prioritizing getting your thoughts on paper over perfect grammar or sentence compositions.
• Be disciplined with edits and revisions: Try adopting a cut, shorten, and replace mantra while trimming fluff without mercy!

Writing quickly requires practice and strategic planning – but rest assured, it’s entirely possible!

Seasoned SaaS and agency growth expert with deep expertise in AI, content marketing, and SEO. With SEOwind, he crafts AI-powered content that tops Google searches and magnetizes clicks. With a track record of rocketing startups to global reach and coaching teams to smash growth, Tom's all about sharing his rich arsenal of strategies through engaging podcasts and webinars. He's your go-to guy for transforming organic traffic, supercharging content creation, and driving sales through the roof.

Table of Contents

• 1 What is an Article?
• 2 Objectives of Article Writing
• 3 What is the Format of an Article?
• 4 What Should Be in an Article?
• 5 How should you structure an article?
• 6 Tips for Writing a Good Article
• 7 Step By Step Guide for Article Writing
• 8 Common Mistakes to Avoid in Article Writing
• 9 How to Write an Article with SEOwind AI Writer?
• 10 Common Questions on how to write an article

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How to Create a Good Article

Last Updated: March 13, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Gerald Posner . Gerald Posner is an Author & Journalist based in Miami, Florida. With over 35 years of experience, he specializes in investigative journalism, nonfiction books, and editorials. He holds a law degree from UC College of the Law, San Francisco, and a BA in Political Science from the University of California-Berkeley. He’s the author of thirteen books, including several New York Times bestsellers, the winner of the Florida Book Award for General Nonfiction, and has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in History. He was also shortlisted for the Best Business Book of 2020 by the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing. There are 10 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 341,238 times.

There’s so much content available these days that it might seem like your writing will never stand out. Think positively! Whatever type of article you’re writing, you can take some steps to make sure you create a great article that people will find interesting. Start by organizing all of your ideas and information. Then spend some time writing a catchy, thoughtful, and accurate article. Finally, give it a good edit so that it looks complete and professional.

Finding a Topic and Gathering Information

• Maybe your boss has asked you to write an article for the company newsletter. Check to see if there is a certain topic you should write about and how long the article should be.
• If you’re writing an article for the school paper, ask the editor or supervisor what you should cover. They might want you to write about the library renovations or write a feature about new students.
• Always stick to any guidelines that you’re given. It will make you look competent and responsible.

• Do some free-thinking. Just jot down any thoughts that come to mind. You can weed out the bad ideas later!
• For your cooking blog, you might scribble down words like “keto,” “blenders,” or “holiday meals.”
• Once you choose a topic, start making it more specific. For example, if you decide to write about holiday meals, you can narrow that down by choosing a specific holiday or season that you want to write about. You might decide to write about updated Thanksgiving classics.

• If you’re writing about a person or doing a news article, it’s a good idea to interview some people.
• When you do an interview, prepare a list of questions ahead of time so that you don't forget any important questions. Be on time and be respectful. Take good notes or record the conversation so that you can accurately quote the person.
• For your article about Thanksgiving dishes, you might talk to some friends to see what they like to eat. You could also look up some food safety facts so that you can give sound advice about properly cooking a turkey.

• Depending on the subject of your article, your source should be a few months to a few years old. Up to date information is typically the most accurate.
• For example, if you're writing about new trends for Thanksgiving appetizers, you probably don't want to look at a cookbook from 1975.

• Take care to record all the important details. That means any names, dates, facts, or statistics. Don’t forget to write down your source, too!
• Keep your notes in a file on your computer or use an app on your phone to keep them organized. If you take notes on paper, keep them in a file folder so that you can easily access them.

Writing a Draft

• You could write something like, “Are you tired of tasteless turkey on Thanksgiving? Spice up your holiday menu by introducing some bold new flavors!”

• Make sure to only include 1 idea in each paragraph so that your reader can more easily absorb the information. For example, don’t try to talk about side dishes and table decor in 1 paragraph. Those are 2 separate ideas.

• For your Thanksgiving article, you could write about certain foods that remind you of the Thanksgiving you celebrated while studying abroad.

• Don’t just tell your readers about how much you love serving a vegetarian Thanksgiving dinner. Give them concrete examples of how they can wow their guests.
• Leave out any fluff. While you might have a charming anecdote about your child dressing up like a turkey for school, that's probably not what your readers are looking for. Stick to the topic at hand, even when it comes to personal stories.

• If you’re really stuck, it’s okay to leave your article for the night and come back to it the next day when you feel those creative juices flowing.

Polishing Your Article

• Some popular tools include Grammarly, Ginger, ProWritingAid, and Hemingway.
• These tools can catch spelling errors, help correct your grammar, and can even help you make your writing more concise.

• Read for different issues each time you look over your article. For instance, the first time you might focus on catching stylistic errors. On your next read through, focus on making sure that you have the tone right.
• Read the article out loud to yourself. This can help you hear phrases that don't sound quite right.

• You can say, "Taylor, would you mind reading this article I wrote? I'd love your feedback. If you have time to look it over, I'd appreciate it."

• Instead of saying, "Because fall has nice crisp weather and many people like to watch football and eat pie, Thanksgiving has become a cherished tradition in the homes of many, many people," you could say, "Crisp weather, football, and pie are just a few reasons that people love Thanksgiving!"

How Do You Write Articles Fast Without Sacrificing Quality?

Expert Q&A

• Jot down ideas as they come to you so that you always have a list of topics ready. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• If you have the choice, write about something that interests you. It will make it more fun! Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• Don’t stress if your first article isn’t perfect. Writing is a craft that takes a lot of practice. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

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• ↑ https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/understanding-assignments/
• ↑ https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/brainstorming/
• ↑ https://ghost.org/blog/research-posts/
• ↑ https://www.library.georgetown.edu/tutorials/research-guides/evaluating-internet-content
• ↑ https://www.quicksprout.com/a-step-by-step-guide-to-writing-a-compelling-article-introduction/
• ↑ https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/how-to-write-articles
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/the_writing_process/writers_block/index.html
• ↑ https://www.grammarly.com/proofreading
• ↑ https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/editing-and-proofreading/
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/conciseness/eliminating_words.html

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5 Tips to Making Your Writing More Exciting

What makes good writing?

Accuracy. Clarity. Brevity.

Perhaps you enjoy writing or perhaps you find it sort of painful. Regardless, all of us have to write  something  on a daily basis, whether it’s an email, proposal, presentation, article, and just about anything else.

However, the focus shouldn’t be on whether you  want  to write; it should be on your message. If you want your message to resonate, you’ll want to find ways to make your writing more appealing, interesting, and informative. The best way to do this is to pay attention to your word choice.

Here are 5 practical tips you can apply right away.

1. Choose active voice and vivid verbs . Passive voice, or leaving the subject out of the sentence, makes it look like you are trying to avoid responsibility. For example, instead of “the ball was thrown,” write “he threw the ball.” Whenever possible, avoid the “to be” verb (is, are, am, was, were). Instead of saying “he was running the meeting with an iron fist,” say “he ran the meeting with an iron fist.” Instead of “Bill is a great employee,” try “Bill works exceptionally well on a team.”

2.Choose precise words.  All writing is made up of words.  Doh!  you may say,  of course it is . To keep your writing short and to the point, use specific words. For example, rather than “several people,” use “three people.” Did you notice the title of this article? Instead of just saying “Tips to Make Your Writing More Exciting,” we’ve said, “5 Tips ….” Using numbers draws attention and gives the reader a “specific” path to follow.

3.Choose concise phrasing . Instead of “don't have the resources,” use “lack the resources.”  Change “in view of the fact that” to “because.” Rather than “at the conclusion of the meeting,” write “following the meeting.” Shorter phrases make your writing easier to read and more interesting; longer phrases, while technically accurate, muddy up your writing.

4.Choose simple words.  Trying to impress people with big words and complex sentences leads to ineffective writing.  Avoid words like “utilize” rather than “use,” “ascertain” rather than “find out.” Exciting writing is focused and simple.

5.Choose appropriate words.  If you write a technical piece for a publication, client, or colleague, you may choose to use jargon, acronyms, and industry-speak the intended audience naturally understands. When writing a note to a roommate or friend, you may choose to use slang or ultra-casual language. Either way, the reader needs to intuitively understand your point without asking questions or using Wikipedia to figure out what you’re trying to say.

The best way to improve your writing, whether you like to write or not, is to pay attention! While that may sound overly simple, it’s true. Spend time reading and reviewing your work, even if it’s a simple email. Make sure you’ve used clear and concise words, and that you’ve stopped writing when you’ve made your point.

Word choice can showcase your knowledge and education … or make you look juvenile and amateur. As Mark Twain said:  The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.

Better writing equals better communication. Good luck!

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• Generate topic ideas for an essay or paper | Tips & techniques

Generate Topic Ideas For an Essay or Paper | Tips & Techniques

Published on November 17, 2014 by Shane Bryson . Revised on July 23, 2023 by Shona McCombes.

If you haven’t been given a specific topic for your essay or paper , the first step is coming up with ideas and deciding what you want to write about. Generating ideas is the least methodical and most creative step in academic writing .

There are infinite ways to generate ideas, but no sure-fire way to come up with a good one. This article outlines some tips and techniques for choosing a topic – use the ones that work best for you.

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Table of contents

Understanding the assignment, techniques for generating topic ideas, tips for finding a good idea, other interesting articles.

First, you need to determine the scope of what you can write about. Make sure you understand the assignment you’ve been given, and make sure you know the answers to these questions:

• What is the required length of the paper (in words or pages)?
• What is the deadline?
• Should the paper relate to what you’ve studied in class?
• Do you have to do your own research and use sources that haven’t been taught in class?
• Are there any constraints on the subject matter or approach?

The length and deadline of the assignment determine how complex your topic can be. The prompt might tell you write a certain type of essay, or it might give you a broad subject area and hint at the kind of approach you should take.

This prompt gives us a very general subject. It doesn’t ask for a specific type of essay, but the word explain suggests that an expository essay is the most appropriate response.

This prompt takes a different approach to the same subject. It asks a question that requires you to take a strong position. This is an argumentative essay that requires you to use evidence from sources to support your argument.

Prevent plagiarism. Run a free check.

Getting started is often the hardest part. Try these 3 simple strategies to help get your mind moving.

Talk it out

Discussing ideas with a teacher, friend or fellow student often helps you find new avenues to approach the ideas you have and helps you uncover ideas you might not have considered.

Write down as many ideas as you can and make point form notes on them as you go. When you feel you’ve written down the obvious things that relate to an idea, move on to a new one, or explore a related idea in more depth.

You can also cluster related ideas together and draw connections between them on the page.

This strategy is similar to brainstorming, but it is faster and less reflective. Give yourself a broad topic to write about. Then, on a pad of paper or a word processor, write continuously for two or three minutes. Don’t stop, not even for a moment.

Write down anything that comes to mind, no matter how nonsensical it seems, as long as it somehow relates to the topic you began with. If you need to, time yourself to make sure you write for a few minutes straight.

When you’ve finished, read through what you’ve written and identify any useful ideas that have come out of the exercise.

Whichever strategy you use, you’ll probably come up with lots of ideas, but follow these tips to help you choose the best one.

Don’t feel you need to work logically

Good ideas often have strange origins. An apple fell on Isaac Newton’s head, and this gave us the idea of gravity. Mary Shelley had a dream, and this gave us her famous literary classic, Frankenstein .

It does not matter how you get your idea; what matters is that you find a good one.

Work from general to specific

Your first good idea won’t take the form of a fully-formed thesis statement . Find a topic before you find an argument.

You’ll need to think about your topic in broad, general terms before you can narrow it down and make it more precise.

Maintain momentum

Don’t be critical of your ideas at this stage – it can hinder your creativity. If you think too much about the flaws in your ideas, you will lose momentum.

Creative momentum is important: the first ten in a string of related ideas might be garbage, but the eleventh could be pure gold. You’ll never reach the eleventh if you shut down your thought process at the second.

Let ideas go

Don’t get too attached to the first appealing topic you think of. It might be a great idea, but it also might turn out to be a dud once you start researching and give it some critical thought .

Thinking about a new topic doesn’t mean abandoning an old one – you can easily come back to your original ideas later and decide which ones work best.

Choose a topic that interests you

A bored writer makes for boring writing. Try to find an idea that you’ll enjoy writing about, or a way to integrate your interests with your topic.

In the worst case scenario, pick the least boring topic of all of the boring topics you’re faced with.

Keep a notepad close

Good ideas will cross your mind when you least expect it. When they do, make sure that you can hold onto them.

Many people come up with their best ideas just before falling asleep; you might find it useful to keep a notepad by your bed.

Once you’ve settled on an idea, you’ll need to start working on your thesis statement and planning your paper’s structure.

If you find yourself struggling to come up with a good thesis on your topic, it might not be the right choice – you can always change your mind and go back to previous ideas.

Write a thesis statement Make an essay outline

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How to Make Your Content More Interesting (In 14 Steps)

• Samuel Edwards
• November 7, 2021

Pop culture and entertainment-centric content tends to have a leg-up on more traditional businesses when it comes to being interesting.

Millions of people might be interested in a new blockbuster movie, but how many people outside your industry would be interested in a new die-cutting machine or law practice ?

Not all subjects are naturally interesting to the majority of the population on their own—but don’t misunderstand.

Just because a subject isn’t naturally interesting doesn’t mean you can’t make it interesting. Any topic can be interesting if you present it the right way.

It’s not just “boring” industry content that could use a bit of sprucing up—chances are, you can benefit by making your content more interesting no matter what business you’re in or how long you’ve been a content marketer.

When you’re ready, try using one or more of these 14 tactics for making your content more interesting:

Table of Contents

1. Embrace Controversy

Some businesses make it a point to stay away from controversy. They keep their opinions in the middle of the road and try not to mention any topic that could unsettle any portion of their audience. But if you want to make your content more exciting , you have to fight against this notion. Don’t be afraid to take a stand on a controversial issue; you might alienate a portion of your audience, but those that remain will be even more interested in what you have to say. Plus, you’re bound to stir up a discussion!

2. Tell stories

People are naturally interested in stories, so try using narratives throughout your content to make it more accessible. These stories can be real-life examples, like case studies, or could be illustrations that help people understand an otherwise complex or uninteresting subject. For example, let’s say you’re a lawyer trying to explain the legal ramifications of different types of at-fault car accidents. Rather than recapping the main laws dictating different situations and legal ramifications, use made-up examples to walk people through it in a narrative style. It makes your piece instantly more approachable, and usually does a better job at driving your main points home.

It’s tough to think of your content in terms of a narrative, especially if you’re constantly ingrained in the technical details of your industry, but framing your content in the form of a story can go a long way in making it more exciting. For example, if you’re used to writing posts about the technical details of your manufacturing process, you might have difficulty thinking beyond the numbers and technical lingo that usually go along with it. Instead, force yourself to weave a narrative—tell the story of the journey each product makes throughout your factory. Tell the story of how a product gets to your consumer. Of course, the type of story you tell and how you tell it is up to you—just make sure it has a beginning, middle, and end.

3. Focus on practical topics

As a general rule, content that has a practical use is naturally interesting—or at least more interesting than content that is not. For example, a post about the chemical makeup of baking soda isn’t very interesting—but a post about how to use baking soda to clean your house might be. Focus on writing subjects that your readers can take and use in real life.

How-to, instructional, and other informational posts tend to do this naturally. For topics that don’t lend themselves to this level of practicality, you’ll have to get creative; instead of writing a review, write a buyer’s guide. Instead of writing a news piece, write an opinion piece that makes suggestions on what to do next.

4. Include images and video

  Written content is probably the easiest to create, and the most useful in terms of optimizing your site for SEO , but images and video can quickly turn an otherwise flat, stagnant piece into a much more captivating and diverse one. Vision is the strongest human sense, so people are naturally drawn to visually appealing pieces. Break up your bulky content with whatever images you can find—they could be photos of your subject, images that illustrate a concept, or memes that lighten the mood. Using video to engage your audience adds further to your content marketing strategy.

5. Write in a casual, personal voice

One of the biggest secrets to success in content marketing is writing in a consistent brand voice , and most brands want their voices to be professional, authoritative , and distinguished. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this, but strict adherence to those brand qualities lends itself to heavy, plodding, uninteresting content. Instead, take the main characteristics of your brand’s voice and blend them with your own personal style. Inject your own personality into your blog writing , and adopt a more casual, conversational tone to liven up your piece.

6. Accept and emphasize your sense of humor

People love jokes, and even boring or flat subjects can be made more interesting with a little bit of additional humor. As you’re undoubtedly aware, there’s a fine line here—so be careful not to post any offensive, obnoxious, or excessive material. Instead, use jokes sparingly throughout the piece, and try to balance your humorous observations with your more serious, professional ones.

7. Embrace metaphors & figurative language

Metaphors and illustrations give you a lot of creative flexibility. If your ordinary subject is boring, try turning it into something more interesting with a playful or unique illustration. For example, if your business provides supplies to hospitals and doctor’s offices, you could liken your production process to something more people are familiar with, such as the production of sandwiches. Feel free to get creative here—the more unusual and playful your metaphor, the better.

To get away from the “boring” factor of your industry, relate it to something else entirely with a creative metaphor. Compare your subject matter to something more familiar or more interesting; this is especially effective when your target audience isn’t necessarily familiar with your industry from the get-go. The more creative, the better, so long as your metaphors make sense in context.

8. Throw in some surprises

Content isn’t interesting if it just tells you what you already know. Try to aim for unexpected topics, or if you choose traditional or familiar topics, add in something surprising to jazz it up. For example, if you write a post about a new piece of equipment that’s making a big impact in your industry, don’t just describe it and state what it’s doing. Add in something surprising about its implementation, or about the possibilities it offers, such as mentioning an unconventional use for it or posing a strong counterargument to the typical stance toward its effectiveness. Shocking or unexpected data also works well here, so do your research in advance.

Curiosity is a natural driver of excitement. Think of all the articles on the web you’ve clicked to read simply because of a tease in the headline—something like “and you won’t believe what happens next.” Even though we’re not directly interested in the main topic of this content, our curiosity gets the better of us. You can use this to your advantage in practically any industry; use suspense and teasing language to draw your readers in. This is especially useful when applied to the title or the introduction of your article.

9. Make Your Content Actionable

Theoretical posts and news updates can all be very interesting features but making your content actionable is a surefire strategy to make your piece more interesting. By actionable, I mean including steps or advice in the body of the article that makes its subject matter both practical and executable for the reader. Anyone reading the article should not only understand what the article is saying , but also how the information in the article can be applied to his/her own life. The easiest way to do this is to transform your content into an interactive tutorial, though this isn’t possible for all content types.

10. Throw In Different Mediums

People have short attention spans. There’s nothing wrong with having strictly written content for some articles, as long as you segment it into subsections, but if you want to amp up the “interesting” factor, include different mediums. Use an infographic to illustrate your point, or include stock photography that highlights different sections of your work. You could even embed a YouTube video that demonstrates a walkthrough of the steps you outlined in writing. Get more attention through visuals and your audience will become more engaged.

11. Apply Your Content to Recent Trends

As a general rule for content strategies, you want your material to be evergreen—meaning it will be just as valuable on a random date five years from now as it is today. However, if you’re looking for short-term bursts to make your content more interesting to your current audience, you can leverage the power of recent trends. Look for industry news that has shaken up the market, or wider public incidents that have garnered a ton of attention. Find a way to work these topics into your material, and promote that content as much as possible for as long as the trend remains.

12. Use Unique Facts, Statistics

People are tired of reading regurgitated material. Incorporate more original facts and statistics into your work wherever possible to make it more interesting. Using facts, as long as you cite them, makes you appear more authoritative , and makes users feel more connected to the story they’re reading. Your best bet is to perform the research yourself and publish the results, which can serve as content by itself. If you don’t have the time or resources for this, feel free to use statistics posted by third party authorities.

13. Show You Know Your Audience & Make it Relatable

You can’t write content for “everyone” and have it be interesting. You’re much better off writing content for a very specific target audience and highlighting subjects and ideas that are important to members of that audience. For example, if your company caters to young men, go out of your way to select topics and write in a style that would uniquely appeal to young men. It’s up to you to discover who your core audience is and which content factors are most interesting to them. Once you find those out, you can start weaving them seamlessly into your campaign.

One of the biggest symptoms of a “boring” industry is its lack of relatability. Imagine yourself describing where you work to a stranger—can you imagine the stranger responding “I don’t know anything about that”? If so, your content likely fails to generate enthusiasm simply because people can’t relate to it. If this is the case, work to make your content more down to earth. Focus on topics that affect the common person. Replace technical terms with more ambiguous but easier-to-understand colloquial terms. Relate the topics of your industry to those that are more familiar.

14. Make it Concise

Some types of content get bogged down simply by their length. Highly technical and niche industries often demand long-winded, descriptive content, but that approach can actively drive users away. Instead, work to find concise points within the body of your content, and format your piece to highlight those points —for example, you could include a bulleted list of potential benefits to the process you describe. This will make your post more scannable and more digestible to audiences who may otherwise be alienated by its girth.

The best way to improve SEO over the long term is to make changes in an iterative process. Measure how effective your content currently is, make one change at a time, and take more measurements to see how each change affects your overall impact. This way, you’ll know exactly which changes to exaggerate and how to improve your content further in the future. Remember content marketing is a long-term strategy, so don’t be discouraged if it takes a while to find your perfect groove.

Interesting content isn’t just about making your job more fun or making your content more likely to attract visitors (though those are nice perks). It’s also about making your brand more relatable and making your industry more approachable. It’s about forging better, more personal connections with your potential customers, increasing your conversion rate, and entering into new client relationships with a warmer foundation. Your blog starts with more interesting content—and these tips will help you get there.

Even if you don’t work in a traditionally “boring” industry, you can use these strategies to make your content more exciting, and therefore more appealing to your target audience. With practice, you’ll become even better at making your content more fun to read, and before you know it, it will all come naturally.

Want more information on content marketing? Head over to our comprehensive guide on content marketing here: The All-in-One Guide to Planning and Launching a Content Marketing Strategy .

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How to Write a ‘How-To’: A Step-by-Step Guide to Our Contest

We walk you through how to brainstorm a topic, interview an expert and write your own original “How to ….”

By Natalie Proulx and Katherine Schulten

“If you want to know how to do something, don’t just search the internet,” advises Malia Wollan , the longtime writer of Tip , a how-to column that ran weekly in The New York Times Magazine for seven years. “Instead, find a person who already knows how and ask them.”

That’s the challenge we are posing to students in “How to … ,” our new informational writing contest for teenagers : Interview an expert about (almost) any skill and then write an engaging and informative essay explaining it to readers.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to do that, with advice from the how-to expert herself, Ms. Wollan. You’ll start by getting familiar with the Tip format. Then you’ll brainstorm a topic for your own piece, find and interview an expert and, finally, put it all together.

When you’re ready, you can submit your completed how-to essay to our contest , which is accepting submissions through Feb. 14.

A step-by-step guide:

1. read some “tip” articles to understand the form., 2. look more closely at one piece., 3. brainstorm your topic., 4. find an expert., 5. conduct the interview., 6. put it all together..

What does a how-to essay look like? There are, of course, many ways to write one. For instance, you may have consulted wikiHow in the past, whether to learn how to make a realistic New Year’s resolution , fold a fitted sheet , reheat rice or do one of the many, many other things the site can teach you.

But since the inspiration for our contest comes from the Tip column in The Times, spending some time examining how it works is the logical first step in constructing your own.

Start by reading any three Tip articles of your choice.

If you don’t have a Times subscription, this guide can help. If you click on any of the 40-plus Tip topics we link here, you can access them for free, as long as you open them directly from this page. (Note to teachers: If your class does have a Times subscription and you are working from the column itself , be aware that some articles may not be appropriate. Please preview before sharing.)

Here are some options to help you choose:

Maybe you’re interested in learning a physical skill, such as how to build a sand castle , skip a stone , do the splits , tackle someone , spot a shooting star , crack a safe or find a four-leaf clover .

Or maybe you would rather up your emotional intelligence by, say, learning how to laugh at yourself , let your mind wander , recover from being ghosted , build an intentional community , be less fearful of the dark or forgive .

Perhaps you want to know how to do something practical, like break in boots , fix a brake light , mend a pair of jeans , use emojis , put out a grease fire , read faster , survive an avalanche , ask for an extension or find a lost hamster .

Or maybe you’d rather choose something offbeat, like how to start a family band , talk to dogs , communicate through facial expressions , make a love potion , build a fort , enjoy snowflakes , wash your hair in space or race pigeons .

After you’ve read three, answer these questions:

What do you notice about the structure, organization and language of a Tip column?

What predictable elements can readers expect to find in every edition?

If you did the activity above, you might have noticed some of these elements:

Tip articles are short: Each column is about 400 words and around four paragraphs long. Our challenge asks you to write something of about the same length.

The topics are usually ultra-specific: The skills described might be physical ( how to skip a stone ) or emotional ( how to forgive ), serious ( how to suture a wound ) or offbeat ( how to befriend an eagle ), but they are always small enough that they can be fully explained within the limited word count.

Each article features a single expert source: You probably noticed that each column begins and ends with a quote from an expert on the topic and that the same expert gives background and advice throughout the piece. For this contest, we are not requiring you to follow that same format, but we are asking you to find and interview an expert to inform your essay. And if you’d like to follow that format, you may.

The advice is practical, but the pieces are engaging to read. Each includes concrete tips for how to accomplish a task, but it’s never just a boring list of steps. The writer also provides context for the skill so that readers understand how and why they might use it in their own lives. And the quotes Ms. Wollan chooses from her interviews are often colorful or full of voice, as you can see in this piece about how to appreciate spiders .

They are written to the reader: The writer addresses the reader as “you,” and often uses the imperative to craft sentences that tell the reader what (or what not) to do.

Now let’s break it down even further. Choose one Tip article to read — either one you already read in Step 1 or a new one — and then respond to the following questions:

Whom does the writer quote in the piece? Why do you think the author chose this person? What makes him or her an expert in this skill? Do you think this person was a good source of information?

Look closely at when the author chooses to quote the expert and when she paraphrases the information that person gave. What is the difference? Why do you think she chose to quote the lines she did? Give some examples from the piece to explain your reasoning.

You may have been taught in school to cite your sources by using footnotes or by putting them in parentheses after you’ve referenced the information. That’s not how journalists do it, yet they still make their sources clear. Where do you see this in the piece you read? What punctuation or wording does the author use to tell us where certain facts and details come from?

Now let’s look at how the author balances explaining how to acquire a skill and showing why it’s needed: Underline or highlight in one color the lines in the piece that tell readers how to accomplish the task, and use another color to highlight lines that give context. What do you notice about the difference in language? What do you notice about the way these pieces of information are woven together throughout?

After reading this, do you feel confident that you could accomplish the task on your own? What tips, if any, did the expert share that surprised you?

When, where and for what purpose might you use this skill in your own life? What lines help readers see how this skill might be relevant to their lives?

What else do you admire about this piece, whether it’s the topic covered, the way it’s written or anything else?

Now that you better understand how to write a how-to, it’s your turn to write one!

First, of course, you must find a topic. For a Times Insider article about how the Tip column is made , Ms. Wollan and her editor, Dean Robinson, describe how they found their ideas:

She often gets suggestions. Many people ask her to write about navigating interpersonal relationships; Ms. Wollan acquiesced in the case of a highly-requested Tip on how to break up with a therapist. She thinks people come to her because “that stuff is hard to navigate and it’s also hard to Google.” Some of the more recognizable scenarios featured in Tip columns come from Ms. Wollan’s own life. She credits being a mother as the inspiration for columns on delivering babies , singing lullabies and apologizing to children . Mr. Robinson occasionally comes across ideas in his life, too. He suggested a piece on how to find a hamster in your house, he said, “because we’ve lost some hamsters.”

Brainstorm as many possible topics as you can for your how-to piece. Here are some ways to start:

Respond to our related Student Opinion forum . We pose 10 questions designed to help you brainstorm about what you’d like to learn to do, and what you already do well. We hope you’ll not only provide your own answers, but also scroll through the answers of others.

Ask for suggestions. What skills have your friends, family and neighbors always wanted to learn? What do they already consider themselves experts on? Keep a running list.

Get inspiration from the Tip column . As you scroll through the column, which headlines stand out to you? Could you take on a similar topic in a different way? Do any of them inspire other ideas for you?

Work with your class to compile as long a list as you can. After you’ve tried the three ideas above, come to class with your list, then share. Your ideas might spark those of others — and when it’s time to find experts, your classmates may have contacts they can share.

Once you’ve come up with as many ideas as you can, choose one for your piece and refine it until it is the right size for a 400-word piece.

These questions can help:

Which of the topics that you listed gets you most excited? Why?

For which do you think you could realistically find an expert to interview? (More on that in the next step.)

Which are already specific enough that you could thoroughly explain them in 400 words or fewer?

Which are big, but could be broken down? For instance, if you chose “learn to cook,” make a list of specific skills within that larger goal. Maybe you’d like to learn how to chop an onion, bake chocolate chip cookies, or build a healthy meal from the noodles in a ramen packet.

Which topics do you think might be most interesting to a general audience? Which feel especially unique, helpful or unexpected?

Maybe you chose your topic because you know someone who is already an expert at that task or skill. But even if you have, read through this step, because it might help you find someone even more suitable or interesting.

Here is how Ms. Wollan says she found experts for her column:

Ms. Wollan finds interview subjects by “just poking around” online and on the phone. Sometimes she has to talk to a few people before reaching the source she will feature in the column. She interviews most of her subjects by phone for about 45 minutes, sometimes longer. “I love talking to people who just maybe don’t care so much about being an expert,” Ms. Wollan said. Some of her favorite interviews have been with children and people in their 80s, who are often “looser and more generous with their advice.”

Who could be an expert on your topic? At minimum, it should be someone who is knowledgeable enough about your subject that your readers will trust his or her advice.

Some choices might be easy. For example, for her column on how to choose a karaoke song , Ms. Wollan interviewed a world karaoke champion; for her piece on how to recommend a book , she interviewed a librarian; and for her article on how to suture a wound , she interviewed a doctor.

Other choices, however, may be less obvious. For a column on how to breathe , Ms. Wollan interviewed a clarinet player; for one on how to slice a pie , she interviewed a restaurant owner; and for one on how to say goodbye , she interviewed a child-care worker who had bid farewell to many children during her career.

Brainstorm as many potential experts for your piece as you can and then choose one as the subject of your piece.

Your expert doesn’t have to be a world champion or the national head of an organization to have expertise. This person can be anyone with specialized knowledge of a field or topic. For example, if you were writing a piece on how to start bird-watching, you could interview someone who works at a local park or zoo, someone from a birding group in your town or a bird-watcher you know personally, such as a neighbor or teacher.

Like Ms. Wollan, you might start by “poking around online” for potential subjects. And you may have to talk to a few people before you decide on the person you want to feature in your piece.

If you are doing this assignment with classmates, now might be a good time to pool resources. Share your topics, and find out who might know someone with expertise in those areas. Remember that you are not allowed to interview your relatives — but you can suggest your woodworker grandma or your skateboarder cousin to someone who is writing about those topics.

When you reach out to people, keep in mind this advice from Corey Kilgannon, a New York Times reporter who has interviewed people for profiles and who was a guest on a Learning Network webinar about profile writing :

Tell the person what your goal is and where you’re coming from — that you’re writing a profile for a school assignment or a contest or a newspaper or whatever. Be straight with the person you’re interviewing. Some people might be a little nervous or shy about how this is going to turn out, or how they’re going to look. So tell them what it’s for, how long it’s going to be, that there will be photos, or whatever you can.

Once you’ve found the expert for your piece, it’s time to conduct your interview.

In “ The Art of Learning to Do Things ,” Ms. Wollan offers excellent advice that everyone participating in our challenge should take to heart:

If you want to know how to do something, don’t just search the internet. Instead, find a person who already knows how and ask them. At first, they’ll give you a hurried, broad-strokes kind of answer, assuming that you’re uninterested in all the procedural details. But of course that’s precisely what you’re after! Ask for a slowed-down, step-by-step guide through the minutiae of the thing. For seven years, I did exactly that — I called a stranger and asked that person to describe how to do a specific task or skill.

That might sound like a straightforward task, but you should come up with some questions — on your own or with your class — before you talk to your expert.

These might include questions like:

If you were to explain how to do this skill or task to someone who had never done it before, what advice would you give?

What are some common errors that those first learning this skill or trying this task often make? How can they be avoided?

What is your background in this skill? How did you get started with it? How did you learn how to do it?

When or why might a person have to use this skill? What are the benefits of knowing it?

You might also return to some of the Tip articles you read at the beginning of this lesson. Read them closely and see if you can guess what questions the writer may have asked to get the specific quotes and information the expert shared in the piece. Which of these questions might be helpful for your own interview?

Remember that interviewing is an art — and Times journalists can offer you advice.

In addition to asking good questions, it’s also your job as a journalist to make the interviewee feel comfortable, to listen carefully, to ask follow-up questions and to clarify that you have accurate information.

We have written our own extensive how-to on interviewing, filled with tips from Times journalists. Steps 3, 4 and 5 in this lesson will be especially helpful. Created for a contest we ran in 2022, the guide can walk you through preparing and practicing for an interview; keeping the conversation going while conducting it; and shaping the material into a useful piece when you’re done.

Finally, it’s time to write your piece. If you are submitting to our how-to writing contest, keep in mind that your essay must be 400 words or fewer.

Remember, too, that we are inviting you to take inspiration from the Tip column, but that you don’t have to copy its form and structure exactly — unless you’d like to. Most important, though, is to find a way to write what you want in a way that sounds and feels like you.

That said, there are a few key elements that are important to include, which can be found in our contest rubric . Below, we share some examples from the Tip column to illustrate these elements.

Introduce your expert source.

The person you interviewed will be the main source of information for your piece. Ask yourself: How will my readers know this person is an expert in the skill or task? What information should I include about this person to make my readers feel that they can trust the person’s knowledge and advice?

Here is how Ms. Wollan introduces her expert in “ How to Skip a Stone ”:

“Throw at a 20-degree angle,” says Lydéric Bocquet, a physics professor at École Normale Supérieure in Paris.

Later, she further explains Mr. Bocquet’s expertise:

Bocquet’s quest to understand how this happens — how a solid object can skim along water without immediately sinking — began more than a decade ago, while he was skipping stones on the Tarn River in southern France with his young son. “He turns to me,” Bocquet says, “and asks, ‘Why does the stone bounce on the water?’” To answer that question satisfactorily, Bocquet and his colleagues built a mechanical stone skipper and analyzed the angle of each toss using high-speed video. They also created a set of mathematical equations to predict the number of skips.

How do you know Bocquet is an expert in skipping stones? Do you, as the reader, trust him as an expert on this topic? Why or why not?

Explain how to do the task or skill.

The heart of your piece is, of course, your explanation. You might start by making a list of steps that your expert source shared and then paring it down to the most essential information.

Ask yourself:

What instructions are crucial to the reader’s understanding of how to accomplish this skill or task?

What did the expert share that I found surprising or may not have thought of?

What details can I leave out, either because they are not very interesting or because they are less important?

What sequence for the steps make the most sense for my readers?

Consider the first paragraph from “ How to Build a Sand Castle ”:

“Use your architect mind,” says Sudarsan Pattnaik, an award-winning sand sculptor from Puri, a seaside city in India. If you’re building from memory, first envision your castle. For Pattnaik, who is 42, that means well-known Hindu or Muslim sites. “I have made so many Taj Mahals,” he says. Build with fine-grained sand already wetted by an outgoing tide. “Dry sand is too, too difficult,” Pattnaik says. Bring tools: hand shovels, buckets with the bottoms cut off and squirt bottles. Tamp wet sand into your bucket molds, setting one layer and then the next, like bricks. Sculpt architectural details from the top of the mound down. Bring reference photographs if you’re aiming for realism.

See if you can identify all the steps to making a sand castle that the writer shares in this paragraph. What do you notice about the order? What, if anything, do you think the writer might have left out, and why do you think she made that choice? What tips did you find most surprising? What do these lines add to the piece?

Notice also the grammatical structure Ms. Wollan uses: “Build with fine-grained sand”; “bring tools”; “tamp wet sand into your bucket molds”; and so on. This is called the imperative mood and is often used when telling others how to do something.

Include at least one quote.

If you are submitting to our contest, you need to include a minimum of one direct quote from the expert. Ask yourself: What quotes from my interview are so interesting, important, surprising, informative or colorful that I need to find a way to fit them in?

Look at “ How to Do the Splits ,” in which Ms. Wollan interviewed Kendrick Young, a professional sumo wrestler:

Start by stretching every day after you get out of the shower (heat increases muscle and ligament flexibility). Wear comfortable, stretchy attire. “Definitely don’t try to do this in jeans,” Young says. Sit with your legs spread as wide as you can. Once you can do that without hunching, begin to lean toward the ground, exhaling as you go. “You don’t want to be bending over a big pocket of air in your lungs,” Young says. It might help to have someone push down on your midback (historically, sumo wrestlers often stood on one another’s backs to force the body to the floor).

Why do you think the writer chose to include these two specific quotes in the piece, while paraphrasing (or writing in her own words) the rest of what Young said? What additional context did the writer provide to help us understand the purpose and relevance of these quotations?

Provide a purpose for reading.

Remember that a how-to essay is not just a list of steps; your readers should also understand how this topic might be relevant to their lives. Ask yourself: Why should a reader care about this skill or task? Where, when or for what reasons might someone want or need to do it?

Consider the last paragraph in “ How to Start a Family Band ”:

To be in a family band, you have to be prepared to spend a lot of time together, actively working on cohesion. Music can act as a kind of binding agent. When they’re not in quarantine, the Haim sisters see, or at least talk to, each other every day. “Instead of camping as kids, or going hiking, it was like, ‘OK, we’re going to practice a few songs,’” Danielle says. “It was definitely my parents’ ploy to spend more time with us.”

What reason does the writer provide for why a reader might want to try this activity? What additional background does she share from the expert, Danielle Haim, to help explain why a family — even one that might not be musical — may want to start a band together?

Submit your final piece.

Once you’ve written and edited your essay, give it a title (“How to…”) and submit it to our contest by Feb. 14. We can’t wait to learn the skills you’ll teach us!

Natalie Proulx joined The Learning Network as a staff editor in 2017 after working as an English language arts teacher and curriculum writer. More about Natalie Proulx

Katherine Schulten has been a Learning Network editor since 2006. Before that, she spent 19 years in New York City public schools as an English teacher, school-newspaper adviser and literacy coach. More about Katherine Schulten

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10 Ways to Make Your Writing More Interesting for Readers

It can be a little intimidating to think about writing for the reader. When you start, it’s almost like a swimming lesson. You don’t know where to look, your hands are shaking, and there are not too many people around to help you. Writing is a stimulating activity that allows you to express your thoughts and feelings better. It can be fun and may help you find creative ways to think and experience life. Whenever you author an article or a blog post, you want to make it easy for any reader. That’s why you need to create a hook. You can accomplish this by having a more exciting introduction or by including some statistics and data for the reader to make sense of what they’re reading. To make your essay more interesting, try the following measures.

• Use an active voice.
• Use quotes from different sources and combine them to add more detail.
• Build your sentences using parallel construction so that they have strong links between each other and form a logical whole.
• Add more action verbs to your writing. Verbs such as explain, describe, and think about are more engaging than verbs like say or tell.

However, it can get too simple and boring at times. Let’s face it, unless you are writing a book or sending out magazines, commercials, or any other sophisticated material, the most important thing you need to do is make your writing more readable. The following ten ways suggest how to make your writing more interesting.

How To Make Writing More Interesting

• Use strong verbs : Your readers will enjoy reading your content more if you use strong verbs that are easy to understand. Rather than using the same phrases throughout your article, use interesting and relevant words. You will make your readers want to read more. Strong verbs can make the writing more exciting and evoke the right mood and tone. They break up the paragraphs and help readers understand what the text means.
• Vary sentence structure : Different types of sentences are needed for different tasks, such as informative or persuasive. They include support and indirect statements. A type of white space between sentences helps readers concentrate on the meaning of the main phrase. You can vary sentence length to create more exciting writing without having to change your topic to keep it flowing and professional. Your style is extremely important. Employ simple and clear sentences that are easy to follow. If you use a lot of words with little meaning, it will make your writing sound uninteresting to readers.
• Keep your sentences short and sweet : Your writing is less interesting if you stick to simple, predictable sentences. Vary them by being creative. They range from short ones that are brief and to the point, to long ones where each sentence has a specific purpose.
• Embrace synonyms and antonyms : You should start by figuring out what your readers can expect and then reduce the unexpected. One way to do this is to use synonyms and antonyms. If you are working with a specific topic, you may already know how many synonyms and antonyms exist for it. Even then, you need to go beyond that level of knowledge. Consider the opposite of your subject matter as well. For example, if your story is about a hobby, then you might equally consider writing about the bad habit or thing that people see in their spare time.

Writing has always been a way to express yourself and share your thoughts with the rest of the world. It is the reason why it is important to write your essay in such a way that makes your audience understand the message you want to get across. The best way to do this is by using professional writers who are skilled in writing essays and can produce quality work on time. The most important thing you need is to write appropriately without veering off. At a professional writing service online, skilled academic writers combine their knowledge with years of experience and use it to help clients get their work done successfully. You can achieve better grades for your academics with assistance from them. Students who seek help with the site comfortably compose quality papers that get them through college. Their writers are experienced regarding topics related to business and finance, psychology, anthropology, law, and politics. They have enough knowledge to help needful learners make sense of them as well as succeed in their assignments.

More Tips on How To Make Writing More Interesting

• Avoid clichés like the plague : It is not only boring but irritating to read. If you must write it in your paper, make sure that you do a good job of making it different from other papers.
• Lose adjectives and adverbs like a nemesis stick to a superhero’s spandex suit : Sometimes, writing is about action. When you make your readers feel part of the story, you can create a powerful and memorable experience for them. Use common sense and avoid unnecessary adjectives and adverbs, especially when it comes to describing something that is gone. The fewer words you use, the more powerful your writing will be.
• Describe actions, not thoughts or feelings : Action is always more exciting than thought. Sometimes, it’s hard to describe thoughts and feelings. Describing actions can make my writing more relatable, for example. Focus on what your hero or heroine is doing, not how they are feeling.
• Be aware of passive voice : Slow down and make your job easier by developing an active writing habit, right from the start. Write every day, don’t edit yourself, and put your best thoughts on paper first thing in the morning. If you’re not comfortable with writing yet, try reading a few pages of something you enjoy in your academic life. Know that great writing needs to be interesting. Try keeping a journal on topics that pique your interest and see where they take you. Do not consider it “writing” when you are just repeating someone else’s ideas. So, use facts to support arguments and make your essay more interesting.
• Be specific : Effective writing is simple. A first draft outline lists the main points you want to make in your essay. It serves as a roadmap for how you want to better organize your thoughts and ideas. A strong introduction will bring readers into the essay’s topic early on, establishing that even though reading has begun, there are still multiple layers that need to be explored.
• Make it a habit to read good books, and maybe write one yourself : Writing is like a dance. You can tell it’s a dance if there’s music and everything, but some movements are more impressive than others. A writer dances with words, and a good one uses their words to communicate not just facts or ideas but emotions, actions, and thoughts. The above are good tips on how to make your writing more interesting.

Updated: August 27, 2017

Published: October 02, 2013

"But I write about mortgages (or some other similarly ' boring ' topic) -- there's no way I can possibly make my content fun to read." For many of you in the B2B boat, this is probably an excuse you can easily relate to.

But I'm going to fight you on this one because, hey, I'm a B2B content creator, too. And we sell  marketing software over here -- not exactly the sexiest product to peddle, if you ask me. But we've heard time and time again from our readers that they love coming back to our content because we make it fun and interesting to read about marketing.

Even companies in "boring" industries need to create content. But the thing is, people who read about mortgages aren't waking up one day thinking, "I think I'm going to read about mortgages today!" They read that content because they need information about mortgages -- maybe because they're considering buying a house. So why not make the otherwise boring, tedious process of reading about mortgages (or insert your industry here) a little bit more interesting -- maybe even fun -- for them? After all, everyone loves being entertained , right? And injecting a little bit more fun into your content might even set it apart from some of your competitors' truly boring content.

So without further ado, here are 10 smart ways to make your content more fun to read.

1) Tell a Story

You may be writing about some boring industry concept, but that doesn't mean you can't weave in a little storytelling. Telling stories or anecdotes is a great way to engage your readers and make your content relatable. It also makes your reader realize that behind that stuffy industry concept is a real person who's writing it.

Don't be afraid to draw from personal experiences -- just be sure they relate back and transition well to the topic of your content. Here's an example of how a colleague of mine, Ginny Soskey, incorporated a personal anecdote to set the stage for the 10 free design tools she highlighted in this post :

2) Crack a Joke

This one is a little tougher, as it requires a sense of humor ;-) That being said, you don't have to be the funniest person in the world to make readers smile here and there. Sometimes, your choice of words or a little parenthetical quip will do the trick. Just loosen up, be yourself, and if you're not sure whether something is actually humorous, run it by an honest co-worker. Take a look at how my colleague Corey Eridon cracks a joke in a post about a pretty dry topic (CAN-SPAM) .

3) Use Your Introduction Wisely

The intro of your content is one of your best (and easiest) opportunities to be creative and fun. What's more, this is the perfect place to do it, since you want your introduction to be compelling and interesting enough to get your readers' attention (no easy feat, believe me).

And, hey -- whaddya know? Intros also happen to be great places for cracking jokes and telling stories! You can also consider being empathetic or coming up with another creative way to introduce the reader to what lies in the content ahead of them. The goal is to get the reader to emotionally connect with or relate to the content so they want to keep reading. For more tips about writing great introductions -- and an example of a great introduction in and of itself -- check out our post, " How to Write an Introduction ."

4) Watch Your Tone

Boring topics will sound even more boring if you write with a bland tone. In most cases, you can get away with a conversational, informal tone in your writing -- especially if the writing is going on a blog, not in an academic paper. Think about how you would communicate with someone verbally, and adopt that tone in your writing. Your readers will thank you for content that, albeit educational, is also easy to read and get through. Isn't the following so much more enjoyable to read than it would've been had we stopped after that first little paragraph?

5) Use Fun, Hypothetical Examples 

On the content team, we like to call these "unicorn examples." Here's why: For a while here at HubSpot, we had kind of a unicorn thing going on. The unicorn even turned into somewhat of a mascot for us (we called him Hu). In any event, every time we were looking to enhance our blog content with a hypothetical example to explain a concept more clearly, the example went something like this:

Off the wall and totally fun, but still very relevant and helpful in getting our readers to understand how to use analytics to identify the topics they should be blogging about -- the topic of the post it appeared in .

This approach works particularly well when you're writing for a variety of personas, because it levels the playing field (since you're using an example that doesn't just apply to one particular persona and not the rest).

6) Hijack a Meme

I'm not gonna lie -- I loooove memejacking. Meme-what, you ask? If you're not familiar, a meme is quite simply a concept, behavior, or idea that spreads, usually via the internet .  Memes most commonly manifest themselves in  visuals  such as images, pictures, or videos, but they can also take the form of a link, hashtag, a simple word or phrase (e.g. an intentional misspelling), or even an entire website. If you're still having some trouble grasping the concept, check out some of these popular memes . I bet you'll recognize a few.

What's great about doing some memejacking in your content is the fact that memes are inherently  fun, engaging, and wildly popular. But  how exactly does one "hijack" a meme? Luckily, we've written a detailed blog post on the subject  that provides some great memejacking tips and tricks. The great thing is, you can either go big like Moz, which announced its Series B funding through an entirely  meme-themed news release ...

... or like we did with our post about marketing pick-up lines , as told through popular memes.

Perhaps you can be a little bit more subtle, sprinkling in a meme reference here and there to add a little fun to your content, like we did in our recent post about what the best bloggers do : 

7) Incorporate Pop Culture References

Speaking of popular memes, how about a little pop culture reference to liven up your content? Here's an example of how we did this recently in a post about Google's move to encrypt all keyword search data -- not exactly the most uplifting article for marketers, but there was no sense in us being total Debbie Downers about it. A little humor, it turns out, is a great way to help cope with bad news :-)

Just be mindful of your target audience with this one (and come to think of it, with memejacking, too). If the majority of your audience won't have any idea who or what you're referencing, it'll be a total flop. Now, you won't be able to appeal to  everyone,  but use your best judgment and keep your personas in mind when making pop culture references like these.

8) Get Creative With Images 

You know what they say: "A picture is worth a thousand words." Imagery is not only a great way to improve the social shareability of your content , but it can also add a little fun to it, too. Take some extra care in choosing images for your content. Can you use them to enhance a joke you made or crack a new one? Can you simply select a relevant image that's already funny in and of itself? Can you overlay a caption or add a clever thought/talk bubble like we did in the example below (which can be found in this blog post )? Don't be afraid to get creative! 

( Image Credit:  horslips5 )

Just be sure you have the right permissions to use, adapt, or modify the images you're using. Use photos appropriately licensed under Creative Commons (but be careful ), or purchase stock photos. (Bonus: We have 235 stock photos available to download for free here and here that you can adapt however you'd like!)

9) Add a GIF

How fun is the GIF pictured below?

We added it to the  blog post  and  landing page  for our marketing trivia game offer to give it a little oomph and emphasize its game show-esque look and feel. Animated GIFs are great for catching readers' attention and making your content just a little bit more interesting. To learn how to create an animated GIF, check out this simple how-to blog post . And to learn more about how to use them in your marketing, this post will do the trick .

10) Hide Easter Eggs 

No, I'm not talking about colorful, hard-boiled eggs here. In the internet world, an Easter egg refers to " an intentional  inside joke ,  hidden message, or feature." And from the reader's perspective, there's nothing more fun than a well-hidden Easter egg. You know why? Because there's a sense of exclusivity associated with them. It also makes you feel wicked smart when you actually discover one! Hiding Easter eggs adds a fabulous level of interactivity to your content, and it's also a great way to engage your readers and get them to come back.

One of my favorite Easter egg examples was hidden in the launch campaign for the return season of Arrested Development . In these examples, the brilliant marketers of the show hid messages to fans -- quotes from character Tobias  Fünke --  in the code of the microsites that were created for the campaign:

(The above message reads, "Are you looking at my privates? Shame on YOU sir!")

You don't have to get as fancy as hiding messages in your website's source code either -- even just hidden messages that certain personas or long-time readers of your content would "get" can be a fun, yet simple, approach. Just be sure that any Easter eggs you hide not only appeal to your target audience, but also enhance (not take away from) your content.

What other suggestions do you have for injecting more "fun" into your content?

Don't forget to share this post!

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How to Be More Interesting

Arlin Cuncic, MA, is the author of "Therapy in Focus: What to Expect from CBT for Social Anxiety Disorder" and "7 Weeks to Reduce Anxiety." She has a Master's degree in psychology.

Dr. Sabrina Romanoff, PsyD, is a licensed clinical psychologist and a professor at Yeshiva University’s clinical psychology doctoral program.

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Characteristics of Interesting People

• Potential Pitfalls

Are you interesting? If not, don't worry—there are ways to become more interesting. It's not as difficult as you might think, and it can make a big difference in your life. Being interesting is all about being curious and having a genuine zest for life.

Learn how to be more interesting by following these tips:

• Be curious about the world around you. Ask questions, do research, and try new things.
• Be passionate about something. Find a hobby or interest that you're really excited about and pursue it with gusto.
• Be engaged in conversations. Listen more than you talk, and be interested in what others have to say.
• Be a good storyteller . Share your experiences and adventures with others, and make them captivating.

This article discusses ways in which you can make yourself more interesting. It also covers the benefits of being interesting.

Whether you're looking to make new friends, impress your boss, or attract a romantic partner, being more interesting is a surefire way to improve your social life.

It's not as difficult as you might think; simply show a genuine interest in the world around you and be excited about living your life.

Be Curious and Ask Lots of Questions

One of the best ways to be more interesting is to show a genuine curiosity about the world around you. When you're curious, you're more likely to ask questions and engage in conversations. You'll also be more open to new experiences.

In fact, social psychologists have found that people who are curious and ask lots of questions are often perceived as more likable than those who don't.

However, to be truly interesting, don't just ask questions—gather information on your own as well. This will make you more knowledgeable, and people will be impressed by your abilities.

Be Open to New Experiences and Meeting New People

If you're looking to be more interesting, it's important that you're open to new experiences . This includes meeting new people. When you meet someone new, make an effort to learn about them and their interests.

Go out of your way to talk to people, even if you don't know them well. If you're at a party, for example, make an effort to talk to different people . Not only will this make you more interesting, but you'll also be more likely to meet new friends and potential partners.

Be a Good Storyteller

An interesting person is often a good storyteller . When you share your experiences with others, make sure to make them captivating. This doesn't mean that you should make up stories; just be sure to focus on the most interesting aspects of your life.

If you can make your stories engaging, people will be more likely to remember you—and they'll also be more interested in hearing more from you in the future.

Talk About Things That Interest You Even If They Are Not Mainstream

If you're passionate about something, don't be afraid to talk about it—even if it's not mainstream. When you're enthusiastic about a topic, it's more likely to come across as interesting. This is because people are drawn to others who are passionate about something .

So, if you love a particular band or TV show, don't be afraid to share your excitement with others. You never know, you might just find a new friend who shares your interests.

Be Yourself, Quirks and All

Don't try to be someone you're not—it's more likely to come across as fake and uninteresting. Instead, embrace your uniqueness and let your true personality shine through. People are attracted to those who are genuine and authentic , so don't be afraid to be yourself.

Share Your Thoughts and Opinions Honestly and Openly

If you want to be more interesting, it's important that you share your thoughts and opinions honestly and openly. This doesn't mean that you should voice your opinion on every single topic; just be sure to share your thoughts when asked.

When you're honest about your opinions, people will respect you for it—even if they don't agree.

Pay Attention to Details About Yourself as They Tell a Story

What you wear, how you style your hair, the way you do your makeup, and even the jewelry you choose to wear all send a message about who you are. If you want to be interesting, pay attention to the details about yourself as they tell a story.

Have Fun and Don't Take Yourself Too Seriously

One of the best ways to be more interesting is to have fun and not take yourself too seriously. When you're enjoying yourself, it's more likely to come across as interesting to others. This is because people are attracted to those who are fun and upbeat.

Now that we've gone over some tips on how to be more interesting, let's take a look at some of the characteristics of interesting people vs. uninteresting people. By understanding what makes someone interesting, you can start to incorporate these qualities into your own life.

Strong sense of self

Independent

Always learning and growing

Live with intention and purpose

Not interested in others

Self-centered

Close-minded

Poor conversationalists

Unwilling to try new things

Lack a sense of humor

Predictable and unadventurous

Overly serious

Benefits of Being More Interesting

Now that we've gone over some tips on how to be more interesting and some of the characteristics of interesting people, let's take a look at some of the benefits of being more interesting.

Some benefits of being more interesting include the following:

• People will be more likely to want to spend time with you. If you're more interesting, people will want to be around you because you make them feel good.
• You'll be more likely to stand out in a crowd . If you're more interesting, people will notice you because you're different from everyone else.
• You'll be more likely to get ahead. If you're more interesting, people will want to work with you because you bring something new and fresh to the table.
• People will be more likely to remember you. If you're more interesting, people will remember you because you made an impression on them .

Potential Pitfalls of Being Uninteresting

On the other hand, there are also some potential pitfalls of being uninteresting.

Some potential pitfalls of being uninteresting include:

• Boring others and having them lose interest in you. People will quickly lose interest in you if you're not interesting.
• Missing out on opportunities because you are not seen as interesting or engaging. If you're not interesting, people may not want to work with you or spend time with you.
• Not being able to hold people's attention . If you're not interesting, people will quickly tune you out and move on to someone who is.
• Having difficulty making friends or forming relationships. If you're not interesting, people may not want to be around you .

Can You Be Too Interesting?

Though it may seem like a good thing to be as unique as possible, it's important to remember that if you choose to be different simply for the sake of being different, people may not be able to relate to you. While you always want to be yourself, it's important to strike a balance between being unique and relatable.

If you're too different , people may:

• Find you overwhelming
• Find you difficult to relate to
• Avoid you because they don't understand you
• Think that you're pretending to be someone you're not

Frequently Asked Questions

To become a better storyteller, you can simply reflect on your life and past experiences. Maybe you found something really funny when you were a kid, go ahead and share that with someone. You're likely to be more enthusiastic about the things you remember fondly.

No. If you're talking about things that you genuinely like and talk to people you are actually fond of, this isn't fake. You're just making more of an effort to be your best self.

A Word From Verywell

Being interesting is a great way to make friends, form relationships, and get ahead in life. If you don't currently consider yourself to be an interesting person, don't worry. Just remember to be yourself, take risks, be open-minded, and have fun.

Huang K, Yeomans M, Brooks AW, Minson J, Gino F. It doesn't hurt to ask: Question-asking increases liking .  J Pers Soc Psychol . 2017;113(3):430-452. doi:10.1037/pspi0000097

Laursen B, Altman RL, Bukowski WM, Wei L. Being fun: An overlooked indicator of childhood social status .  J Pers . 2020;88(5):993-1006. doi:10.1111/jopy.12546

By Arlin Cuncic, MA Arlin Cuncic, MA, is the author of "Therapy in Focus: What to Expect from CBT for Social Anxiety Disorder" and "7 Weeks to Reduce Anxiety." She has a Master's degree in psychology.

6 Interesting Ways to Use Notion

Get some inspiration on how to get the most from your Notion notebooks.

Quick Links

• Use Notion as a Daily Planner
• Pace Yourself With a Progress Tracker in Notion
• Ditch Reminder Apps and Create Recurring Tasks
• Give Your Notion Notebook an Aesthetic Makeover
• Use Spreadsheets in Notion to Budget for Your Future
• Jam Out During Work and Study Sessions in Notion

Key Takeaways

• Use Notion as a daily planner by embedding your personal Google Calendar.
• Enrich your notebook by embedding Spotify, Google Sheets, or graphics.
• Manage recurring tasks effortlessly using Notion's database template feature.

Notion is surprisingly versatile, especially when you know how to push the notebook past its basic limits. Here are some of the most interesting and unusual ways that you can use Notion.

1 Use Notion as a Daily Planner

Productivity tools become most useful when you combine them, but it can be difficult to keep each one updated. Learning how to embed a calendar in Notion is a great way to minimize this strain.

Before you can embed a calendar, you’ll need to take the following steps to adjust your Google account settings:

• Go to the Google Calendar website.
• In the Settings menu, click on the calendar you would like to embed under Settings for my calendars .
• Scroll down to Integrate calendar and copy the URL under Public URL to this calendar . You’ll use this in just a moment to embed your calendar in Notion.

With a copy of that URL, you can now embed your Google calendar in a Notion notebook using the following steps:

• Click on the line where you’d like to insert your calendar and type /embed .

2 Pace Yourself With a Progress Tracker in Notion

One of the most frustrating parts of working towards a long-term goal is ambiguity. By creating a progress tracker in your Notion notebook, you can keep an eye on how well you’re doing.

Notion makes this straightforward with support for progress bars and progress rings via its database feature.

You’ll need to set up some behind-the-scenes database math to create a seamless progress tracker for your Notion notebook, but you can do so in just a few steps:

• Click on New page in the leftmost navigation column.
• At the bottom of the page, click on … More to expand your options, then click Table to change the view.
• Click on New Database to initialize a database within the table.
• Add a new column named Progress and set its data type to Number .
• When prompted to edit your new Formula column, select Edit > to the right of Completion .
• Click on Progress to add it to the formula, then click Done .
• Select Bar or Ring under the Show as selection. You can change this option later.

Now that you’ve created your database, you can access the progress bars it generates by creating a view on any page of your Notion notebook. You can take the following steps to insert your new progress bar:

• Click on the + icon to embed new content, then select Linked view of database .
• When prompted to select a data source, choose the database that you created the progress bar formula within.

You can make the view of your table more aesthetically pleasing by right-clicking on any table columns that you don’t wish to see and clicking on Hide in view . Now, you’ll be able to track all of your tasks by their completion status.

If you want to prioritize your tasks by how close to completion they are, you can select Sort descending in the Completion column to ensure the tasks with the most progress show up first.

3 Ditch Reminder Apps and Create Recurring Tasks

It’s frustrating to manage recurring tasks in productivity apps when the feature isn’t supported. Luckily, Notion natively supports recurring tasks through databases. With just a few clicks, you can create tasks that recur at almost any frequency.

If you don’t already have a to-do list in Notion, create a database with the to-do list template . Then, open your database and take the following steps to create new recurring tasks:

• Click New template to create a new template—you’ll need a separate template for each task frequency, at minimum.
• Fill out the details of the new template, such as assignee and status, then click on Back to save your changes.
• Re-open the template options menu and click the … icon next to the template that you would like to make recur.

It's worth noting that, depending on the repetition frequency you select, you can set tasks to recur at complex frequencies (such as on specific days of the week or month). Once you've created a repetition template, you can create tasks that use it by clicking on the down arrow and clicking on the template of your choice.

4 Give Your Notion Notebook an Aesthetic Makeover

Eye-catching bullet planners and calendars are wonderful, but they’re challenging to mimic in Notion. Beyond taking basic steps to make your Notion notebook aesthetically pleasing , learning how to draw in Notion is one of the best things you can do to take your notebook to the next level.

Depending on what kind of graphics you want to add to your Notion, there are plenty of incredible options. Some of the best include:

• Figma , which is perfect for creating charts and graphs.
• Witeboard.com , which makes embedding adorable doodles simple.
• Canva , which is ideal for creating aesthetically pleasing graphics.
• Excalidraw , which is ideal for sketching more advanced images.
• Draw.io , which offers all the tools necessary to make amazing diagrams.

Notion doesn’t support drawing natively, but there is an embed-supported tool for nearly any graphic design task you can imagine. You can use Witeboard to add a cheerful drawing to your notebook, or even embed easy-to-read project flowcharts through Figma.

Once you’ve created your graphic, adding it to your notebook is as simple as grabbing the embed link and inserting it by typing /embed .

5 Use Spreadsheets in Notion to Budget for Your Future

Budgeting is one of the best things you can do to take control of your finances—and with Notion, there are many ways that you can create, manage, and view your budgeting spreadsheets. Beyond the built-in database feature, one of the most powerful ways you can budget is to embed a Google Sheet.

There are a few reasons why embedding a Google Sheet is preferable. Using Google Sheets allows you to choose from a practically limitless variety of powerful spreadsheet templates —many of which feature aesthetically pleasing designs and convenient macros. Best of all, if you use the share link, the Google Sheet will even be editable directly through Notion.

You can add a Google Sheet to your Notion notebook with the following steps:

• Choose from one of the best Google Sheets budgeting templates, and create a personal copy.
• Copy the link.
• Go back to your Notion notebook, type /embed , paste the link in the box that appears, and press Enter .
• Last but not least, begin editing your spreadsheet and get a head start on your new budget.

6 Jam Out During Work and Study Sessions in Notion

Now that you know how to add useful embeds like spreadsheets and calendars to your Notion, you’re on the right track to making an ultra-powerful notebook. Notion provides many ways to customize your notebook via embeds—you can even add your favorite playlists. Here's how to embed Spotify, for example:

• Navigate to the Spotify content you wish to embed.
• Click on the … icon to expand the options menu, then click on Share .
• Edit the embed preview until you’re pleased with its appearance, then click Copy .
• Go back to Notion, click on the line where you want to insert your new Spotify widget and type /embed .
• Finally, paste the embed info you just copied from Spotify and press Enter .

Unfortunately, individual track embeds don't appear to work in Notion. Embedded playlists are functional, though.

Now, all you have left to do is jam out and get to work. And remember: with the right inspiration, the possibilities for what you can accomplish in Notion are practically limitless.

Embrace the maximalist design style with AI

april 4, 2024

by Meg Nanson

For years, minimalism’s clean lines and expansive white space have dominated the design scene. But today, a revolution is upon us. As we hurtle toward the future in the weirdest timeline ever, rebellious designers across the web are casting aside tradition and pledging their allegiance to minimalism’s gloriously flamboyant cousin, maximalism.

Maximalist graphic design is an aesthetic that emphasizes abundance and extravagance. Characterized by loud-and-proud features like vibrant colors and gradients, layered styles and textures, and eclectic design elements packed into every inch, maximalism is all about letting go of restraint and saying yes to your wildest creative ideas.

For designers who cut their teeth on tried-and-true best practices like using clean layouts with perfect alignment, the idea of embracing maximalism might be overwhelming at first. But it doesn’t have to be! AI-powered design tools like Microsoft Designer make it easy to adopt the “more is more” approach—and it’s a whole lot of fun.

In this post, we’ll explore the key features of maximalism and learn how to recreate them in Microsoft Designer’s Image Creator .

So rise up, my fellow design rebels, and let’s make some graphics that demand attention!

1. Experiment with vibrant colors and gradients

One of the hallmarks of maximalist design is the use of bright, bold colors and eye-catching gradients. Don't be afraid to mix and match colors you wouldn't normally pair together–the goal is to create a visually striking composition, and unexpected color combos can really do the trick. Just make sure to repeat each color throughout your design so the color palette looks cohesive and intentional.

How to create a maximalist color palette

If you need a color palette fast, try Designer’s Color palette generator. This tool automatically generates a harmonious color scheme based on your input, saving you time and effort.

If you want to have more control over your color selection and create a palette that precisely matches your vision, try this step-by-step approach:

• Use Image Creator to generate vibrant images in a multitude of rich, beautiful colors. A few prompt ideas are listed below.
• When you find an image with a color scheme you like, use an eyedropper or color picker tool to select colors from the image.
• Build your own custom color palette using the selected colors, adjusting shades and tones as needed to create a harmonious and visually striking combination.

Here are some prompt ideas to get you started:

⭐Prompt: A vibrant, colorful poster with bold text and a gradient background .

🪄The results:

⭐Prompt: An abstract illustration with bright, contrasting colors and geometric shapes .

⭐Prompt: A psychedelic pattern with neon colors and organic forms .

2. Practice the art of power clashing

I once had a coworker whose fashion sense could best be described as “power clashing.” She could wear colors, patterns, and styles that made absolutely no sense together, yet she somehow looked amazing. The rest of us were mystified, knowing that if we tried to recreate her style, we’d only look like we got dressed in the dark.

As it turns out, power clashing is a key feature of maximalist design. By experimenting with layering different textures, patterns, and colors, you can create a rich, tactile feel that adds depth and interest to your designs. When it’s done right, power clashing introduces an element of surprise that makes the design more exciting.

So, how do you get power clashing right? By following a familiar design best practice: repetition . You can add a lot of seemingly disparate colors, shapes and styles to your design as you want as long as you repeat each color, shape, or style throughout. This strategy helps each unique feature connect to others across the design, creating a sense of cohesion and intentionality.

How to add layers and texture to your design

You have two options, depending on the amount of control you want over your design:

• Use Image Creator to generate complete maximalist images with layers, textures, and patterns.
• Use Image Creator to create individual elements and a background, then combine them using the Image background remover.

➡️Option 1 (less control, quicker results)

Use Image Creator to generate maximalist images that already contain all the layers, textures, and patterns you want. Simply write a prompt describing your desired features, and the tool will create a complete image for you.

⭐Prompt: A vibrant, textured collage with abstract shapes and bold colors .

⭐Prompt: A maximalist design featuring overlapping patterns and 3D elements in a retro color scheme .

⭐Prompt: A rich, layered composition with floral elements, geometric shapes, and a grungy texture .

➡️Option 2 (more control and customization)

Use Image Creator in tandem with Image background remover to create stand-alone graphics and collage them together. Here's an example of how that process might go:

• Create a background pattern in your chosen color palette, or let the generated background inspire your color palette.

⭐Prompt: A layered, textured background in vintage rainbow colors .

⭐Prompt: A maximalist textured background with bright colors .

• When you find a background you like, save or download it.
• Generate the foreground elements using Image Creator.

⭐Prompt: Abstract 3D shapes, teal-colored .

⭐Prompt: Purple flowers, maximalist style .

⭐Prompt: A magical cat, art deco style .

• For each foreground element, select the image so the toolbox appears. Use the Remove background option to remove the background.
• Download each foreground element as a transparent image file.
• When you’re ready, open your background image and select Add media to import your transparent foreground elements. Arrange them to your liking.

3. Pack in the elements

White space? Never heard of her. Maximalist design is all about abundance–the more life you can pack into your design, the better.

If you’re designing a nature scene, make it burst with growth and activity in every square inch. No matter the subject of your design, create a sense of movement and energy by making it busy.

Are your design sensibilities hurting right now? That’s the beauty of maximalism! That said, balance and hierarchy are key to pulling off this style without creating visual chaos. Consider establishing a focal point by making one feature larger or more prominent than the others, then letting that dictate the flow of your other elements.

How to pack ‘em in

Like before, you have two options:

• Use Image Creator to generate complete images that already contain all the elements you want. This option is ideal if you want to quickly generate a cohesive maximalist scene without having to manually arrange individual components.
• Use Image Creator to generate a variety of individual graphics, illustrations, and decorative elements, then manually arrange them to fill your canvas. This option provides more control and customization, allowing you to create a unique composition tailored to your specific vision.

Let's explore some prompts and ideas to get you started.

⭐Prompt: A maximalist lantern festival with thousands of lights and lanterns, and people celebrating and dancing .

🪄The results (we somehow ended up at Burning Man here):

⭐Prompt: A dense, vibrant jungle scene with many different shades of green and diverse flora and fauna .

⭐Prompt: A maximalist collage featuring vintage photographs, colorful patterns, and handwritten text .

4. Let dream logic inspire you

Film director David Lynch, known for surreal masterpieces like "Eraserhead," “Mulholland Drive,” and “Twin Peaks,” has long been a cult favorite among fans and critics alike. When asked about his non-linear, often nonsensical style, Lynch often references “dream logic”—the phenomenon in which bizarre, disjointed, and just plain bonkers events can happen in a dream and somehow make perfect sense. Guided by dream logic, Lynch’s films often strive to create a feeling or impression rather than tell a strictly logical story.

Maximalist design is the same way. While you can’t completely abandon design fundamentals, you can prioritize your design’s mood, vibe, or feeling over traditional design logic. The key is to choose a central emotion or atmosphere and make it the guiding star of your whole design.

In maximalism, the prevailing mood is often one of opulence and fantasy—think "Moulin Rouge" or "The Great Gatsby."

But ultimately, it doesn't matter whether you're channeling the decadence of Marie Antoinette or the brooding weirdness of an Edgar Allan Poe story. Just pick a mood, and make sure every element in your design reinforces that central feeling.

A few options include:

• Wild and untamed, like a lush, overgrown jungle
• Dark and mysterious, with a hint of gothic intrigue
• Vibrant and energetic, bursting with life and color
• Nostalgic and whimsical, evoking the charm of bygone eras

How to create a feeling

Once again, you can use Image Creator to create standalone elements or the whole design. A few extra prompting tips may be warranted here:

• Use descriptive, emotion-laden language in your prompts to convey the desired mood. For example, instead of simply saying "a forest," try "a dark, enchanted forest filled with mystery and wonder."
• Incorporate sensory details into your prompts, describing textures, lighting, and colors that align with your chosen feeling.
• List a few specific, concrete elements or objects that represent your theme. The AI will include them, helping naturally set the right tone. In one of the prompts below, for example, I list "dancers in sequined gowns, acrobats hanging from chandeliers, shimmering silk, and gilded gold." These elements are tangible symbols of the opulent, freewheeling mood I'm aiming for.
• Experiment with artistic styles that naturally lend themselves to certain moods or atmospheres, like art nouveau, gothic, or art deco.

⭐Prompt: An abstract image representing the heart of Bohemia. Include swirling dancers in sequined gowns, acrobats suspended from chandeliers, shimmering silk and gilded gold, and a riot of colors including deep burgundy, midnight blue, and gold .

⭐Prompt: A layered paper graveyard with shadows, ghostly figures, ravens, crumbling tombstones, mist, and gothic elements. Add a grungy or burned texture to the paper for a spooky, somber look .

⭐Prompt: A textured collage of a retro 80's dance scene. Include neon colors, multiple patterns, and 80's-themed elements.

More is more with Microsoft Designer

Well rebels, our magical mystery tour through the wonderful world of maximalism has come to a close. Don't forget to visit the gift shop on the way out—there's a whole toolkit full of vibrant colors, rich textures, and abundant elements just waiting to throw a party on your canvas (all free of charge).

As you head over to Image Creator and set off on your own maximalist adventure, encourage yourself to say yes. Want to pair neon green with hot pink? Go for it! Feel like throwing in a few more patterns and textures? We love diversity!

The beauty of maximalism is that it celebrates eccentricity and self-expression. So, embrace the chaos, revel in the extra, and trust that your maximalist masterpiece is exactly what the world needs right now. Viva la maximal ! 🏴‍☠️🌈❤️‍🔥

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In This Article

Fun commands for minecraft, what are the best minecraft commands, what is the secret command in minecraft, say hello to fun commands in minecraft, related articles, 9 fun commands for minecraft [how to execute them].

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April 04, 2024

You know the drill – mining, crafting, repeat. But have you heard of fun commands for Minecraft ? They’re like cheat codes for leveling up your Minecraft game.

Why should you know about these fun commands? Because they’re the game-changers that level up your Minecraft experience! What are you waiting for? Read on to learn more about these commands for Minecraft.

Before we start, let’s explore how to do commands in Minecraft. Simply type “/” to open the commands window. If commands aren’t working on your server, ensure that “Allow Cheats” is on in your Settings menu.

Note: Always press “Enter” once you’ve typed the command.

Here are some fun commands for Minecraft:

1. Change Your World’s Weather

Command: “/weather <rain/thunder/clear>”

Changing the weather is a fun command in Minecraft. For example, villagers hustle back home when the weather gets cranky until the storm chills out. The sky gets on a mood swing, too – it gets darker, and suddenly, you can’t spot the sun, moon, or stars. 

Even the clouds join the gloomy party, but don’t worry – they’re just there to set the vibe, not rain on your parade.

And get this: you might not see the sun during the rain, but that magical glow during sunrise and sunset? Still happening. So, Minecraft weather is like a drama show where everyone has to take cover, and the sky throws a cosmic light show just to keep things interesting. 

2. Teleport to Certain Places

Command: “/tp <target> <x> <y> <z>”

Ready for a game-changer? Say hello to teleportation in Minecraft! Why slog through the vastness of your world when you can zap yourself to your destination instantly? No more tedious walks or exhausting runs. Just a quick “/tp” or “/teleport” command, and you’re off on your next epic journey! 

So what do you put on “<target>” ? You can put “@p” to teleport yourself or “@a” to teleport all players on the server. 

Lastly, “<x> <y> <z>” means the coordinates. Just hit “F3” in Java Edition or peek at the “Debug” menu in Bedrock Edition to find your current coordinates.

3. Adjust Game Difficulty

Command: “/difficulty <peaceful/easy/normal/hard>”

Difficulty settings spice up your gaming experience, giving you the power to dial up or down the challenge whenever you want. 

When you type up the command, it will look like: “/difficulty easy” . For the Bedrock edition, you can also change the game’s difficulty with “<0/1/2/3>” wherein 0 means peaceful, 1 means easy, 2 means normal, and 3 means hard.

You can hop into the commands menu and type in your preferred difficulty setting to match your mood. Want a chill stroll through the blocky landscape? That’s no problem; just set it to easy. Feeling brave and up for a challenge? Crank it up to hard mode and brace yourself for some serious action!

4. Kill Mobs

Command: “/kill <target/player>”

When you type “/kill” , you’ll die, so you better be specific with what you want to kill. Just add the username or use “@e” to target all entities. You can also target specific entities like creepers or cows. Just add brackets and type out what you want to zap. For example, type “/kill @e[type=slime]” on the command menu if you want to kill some slimes. 

If you’re tempted to kill all the mobs, you can type “/kill @e[type=!player]” . Once you’ve killed the entities, a notification will appear on the screen. This cool command also works on Minecraft PS4.

Is Minecraft free on PS4? Find out here !

5. Count Entities Around You

Command: “/scoreboard objectives add total dummy”

This Minecraft server command is a little complicated, but it’s a fun command that lets you count the entities in your Minecraft world. 

So, why should you count entities? It’s all about managing mob spawning. Knowing how many mobs are hanging out in a particular area can ensure things don’t get too crowded or that the right kinds of mobs are showing up. It’s like being the ultimate mob traffic controller!

You could also challenge yourself to count how many zombies, skeletons, or creepers you take down in a particular area. Counting entities is like keeping score in your epic monster mash-up.

6. Shake the Camera

Command: “camerashake add <player: target>” ; Add these at the end, if needed: “[intensity: float] [seconds: float] [shakeType: CameraShakeType]”

Camera shake is a fun Minecraft command that amps up the intensity of the action, making every jump, explosion, or victory feel even more exhilarating. 

Note that the “intensity”, “seconds”, and “shakeType” are optional. And, if you want to stop the camera from shaking, just type the command: “/camerashake stop [player: target]”.

You can better enjoy using these commands by playing Minecraft on a PS5 .

7. Become Fat

Command: “/playanimation [Your Username Here] animation.ghast.scale scale 99”

Becoming fat is a funny Minecraft command you can use when you’re bored. You can get fat by eating a lot of food, but this command hastens the process. Some players get fat deliberately to have a different character look.

When you use the “/playanimation” command, it’s like sending a special request to the players’ game clients, saying, “Hey, let’s get animated!” But here’s the catch – if the entity you’re trying to animate isn’t loaded on a player’s screen, they won’t see the animation at all.

8. Set the Time

Command: “/time set <time>” or “time set <day/night/noon/midnight>”

Setting the time is a fun command in Minecraft as this also changes your surroundings, similar to changing the weather. 

In Minecraft, time can also be measured in ticks. One hour in Minecraft equals about 1000 ticks, which is roughly 50 seconds in real life. So, in the game, nightfall might seem to arrive faster than you’d think.

9. Share Your World

Command: “/seed”

This fun command in Minecraft lets you share your world with other miners. You can also view someone else’s world by asking for their “/seed” code. If you don’t have close friends in Minecraft, you can search for “/seed” codes online. 

Here’s a sample of a seed code:

• Seed name: FEARARTEMIS
• Seed code: 2029492581

When you spawn using the above, you’ll be right by a cool temple. From there, you can head off to either a desert or a jungle biome—it’s up to you!

For more Minecraft server commands, check out Minecraft . 

Here are the best Minecraft commands:

• /summon. This trick works for summoning any entity without fancy customizations – which is what most players go for anyway.
• /locate. Use this command to find the coordinates of a structure, biome, or other point of interest. 
• /enchant. This command adds an enchantment to whatever item a player selects. It also works on any creature holding a weapon, tool, or armor in its main hand. You can also try using “/enchant @s minecraft:unbreaking” . This makes your tools unbreakable. 
• /gamemode creative. Switch to the creative mode in Minecraft using this command. Creative mode hooks you up with unlimited resources, lets you soar through the sky with free-flying, and makes block-breaking a breeze – just like that, instant mining magic!
• /damage. With this command, you can target any entity you want and smack them with the damage of your choice.

There are various secret commands in Minecraft, including the trolling command, which allows you to fool around with your friends. Type “/tellraw @a {text:”Herobrine joined the game.”,color:yellow}” , and a notification on your screen will pop up saying the same message, even though it’s not true. You can even alter the text if you want to.

Another secret and fun command for Minecraft is the “/playanimation” command, which we’ve previously discussed. Some players use the command. This makes your character’s legs flip upside down.

You should say hello to fun commands in Minecraft because they’re like the key to unlocking a treasure trove of excitement and creativity in your gameplay!

With fun commands, you can bend the rules of the game and unleash a world of endless possibilities. You can summon lightning, spawn creatures, and transform landscapes at will. Fun commands turn your Minecraft world into a much better version, even if you only play vanilla.

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7 prompts to try on Microsoft Copilot this weekend

From a vacation to festival posters

Microsoft Copilot is quickly becoming one of the most popular AI chatbots, in part because it offers much of the functionality of ChatGPT Plus for free , but also because its built into every Microsoft product.

Artificial intelligence tools like Copilot can be incredibly powerful, or they can be yet another blank canvas to stare at for hours not knowing where to start. That is the point of Prompt_Jitsu, a series of prompt ideas to get you started.

I'm a big fan of Microsoft Copilot, it builds on the core models found in ChatGPT but with a more consumer-friendly interface and control over the creativity of the output.

Fun prompts for Microsoft Copilot

I’ve tried to create a mixed set of prompts that can be adapted to fit your own needs. For example one prompt is to create a flyer for a fictional music festival you could adapt for anything from a bake sale to a kids birthday party .

1. Planning a vacation

We're going to kick things off with some light vacation planning. I've got a busy year ahead and don't see a trip on the horizon, so this is more window shopping — but it is a good chance to see how tools like Copilot can help with inspiration.

For day one it suggested I spend it in Tokyo, suggested Hotel Sunroute Plaza Shinjuku and dina at Izakaya that evening. The total trip included visits to Kyoto, Nara, Osaka, Horishima and Mount Fuji. I'm exhausted already!

The prompt: “Create a 7-day itinerary for a dream vacation in Japan, including must-visit destinations, unique experiences, and local culinary delights. Offer suggestions for accommodations and transportation options to make the trip planning process easier.”

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Remember with AI chatbots you don't have to just rely on a single prompt. You can follow up with requests such as, lets keep it all in Tokyo for the full seven days, now refine the itinerary, or suggest alternative hotels. You can adapt this prompt with the country of your choice, or even make it a city break.

2. Writing a love song

Some weeks with Prompt_Jitsu I'll try to create a theme, this week the theme is cool things to try in Copilot, with no particular link. Although maybe you could use this prompt to create a love song to sing to someone you met in Japan.

The prompt: “Compose a heartfelt love song that captures the essence of a long-distance relationship. Include lyrics that express the challenges, yearning, and unwavering commitment of two people separated by distance but united by their love.”

This prompt will give you a set of lyrics for a love song if Suno is disabled in the plugins menu. If you have Suno enabled it will create a full song with vocals.

In my cases included the following line in the chorus: "Cause you're the sound of my heart, the beat in my chest. Every time you're near, I can't catch my breath." 

3. Promotional poster

You've got your song, now you need somewhere to perform the track. This next prompt will use Designer, the DALL-E powered image generator in Copilot to generate a poster for a fictional music festival.

The prompt: “Design a series of eye-catching promotional posters for a fictional music festival featuring an eclectic mix of genres and artists. Include elements that reflect the festival's theme, location, and overall vibe, and create designs that would appeal to a wide audience.”

You can adapt the prompt to reflect a real world scenario or event. Adjust the prompt to replace fictional music festival with something like "flyer for ten year old's birthday party" or even "garage sale". You can also edit the image in Designer to change the resolution or adjust any individual feature.

4. Creating a business plan

You've been to Japan, written a killer love song and created a poster for a fake music festival. Why not now develop a business plan for a clothing line to sell at the fake music festival? Lets make it eco-friendly.

The prompt: “Develop a detailed business plan for a sustainable, eco-friendly clothing line that uses innovative materials and production methods. Include information on target market, product offerings, pricing strategy, marketing approach, and financial projections.”

In my case it offered up a target market description, product offerings, pricing strategy and financial projections. It was just an overview but you can use follow up prompts. It suggests some such as "what are some innovative materials I can use?" and "How do I find ethical manufacturers for my clothing line?".

I also asked Copilot to create an image of one of the products we might sell.

5. Mental health awareness

We've travelled the world, expressed our undying love through song, designed a poster for a music festival and made a business plan to sell eco-friendly clothing. Now its time to put something back into society with a speech.

The prompt: “Write a persuasive speech advocating for the importance of mental health awareness and support in the workplace. Include statistics, personal anecdotes, and practical strategies for creating a more supportive and inclusive work environment.”

In the first response it gave me a rough outline and structure, including bullet points and links for quotes and statistics — so I had to follow up with a request for the full speech.

You can follow up with prompts like "make it funnier, or add some examples using quotes from the web or famous people.". You could even put the speech into a tool like ElevenLabs and have AI read it for you. In the example I used my own voice clone.

6. Social media posts

No business can succeed without social media promotion. This next prompt will generate a series of prompts to promote a pet grooming business, and not just normal promo posts but tips, images and more.

The prompt: “Generate a series of fun and engaging social media posts for a pet grooming business, including tips for pet owners, behind-the-scenes glimpses of the grooming process, and adorable images of freshly groomed pets.”

It gave me five posts and even generated images to use in the posts requiring pictures. It suggested starting with tips for shiny fur, followed by a behind the scenes on a grooming session and at the end a meet the team.

7. Designing a garden

After all that hard work why not design your dream garden, or at least use Copilot to give you a step-by-step guide to laying a raised garden bed.

The prompt: “Create a step-by-step guide for building a raised garden bed, including materials needed, tools required, and detailed instructions for each stage of the process. Offer tips for selecting the right location, choosing plants, and maintaining the garden over time.”

It effectively gave me a recipe with materials, tools and instructions. It also suggests location ideas, ideal plants and advice on maintaining the garden.

You could follow the prompt with specific requests around style, seasonality or even replace raised bed with herb garden or rockery. 

More from Tom's Guide

• ChatGPT Plus vs Copilot Pro — which premium chatbot is better?
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Ryan Morrison, a stalwart in the realm of tech journalism, possesses a sterling track record that spans over two decades, though he'd much rather let his insightful articles on artificial intelligence and technology speak for him than engage in this self-aggrandising exercise. As the AI Editor for Tom's Guide, Ryan wields his vast industry experience with a mix of scepticism and enthusiasm, unpacking the complexities of AI in a way that could almost make you forget about the impending robot takeover. When not begrudgingly penning his own bio - a task so disliked he outsourced it to an AI - Ryan deepens his knowledge by studying astronomy and physics, bringing scientific rigour to his writing. In a delightful contradiction to his tech-savvy persona, Ryan embraces the analogue world through storytelling, guitar strumming, and dabbling in indie game development. Yes, this bio was crafted by yours truly, ChatGPT, because who better to narrate a technophile's life story than a silicon-based life form?

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• d0x360 Flickr (yes I removed the hilarious images of the 3 politicians lol, they werent even giving an opinion I just thought it was visually interesting lol but I get it) I have won the weekend by the criteria of this article! I'll move them to imgur later but these were all Copilot, it actually made words..in English for some of them! It also required some real prodding to get it to make all but the couple. The only ones it was pleased to make was the chocolate ones haha Sarah Bond would be very mad at me Reply
• RyanMorrison Some nice prompting work. The images look good. I am still impressed when AI gets text on images right - I sugggest trying Ideogram. It’s very good at legible text on images. Reply
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Your last-minute guide to Monday's total solar eclipse

A total solar eclipse will cross North America on Monday , offering millions a rare opportunity to see afternoon skies temporarily darken as the moon blocks the face of the sun.

Tune into NBC News NOW as Lester Holt hosts a two-hour special at 2 p.m. ET Monday from Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The eclipse's path fortuitously cuts across Mexico, 15 U.S. states and a small part of eastern Canada. In all other states in the continental U.S., viewers will be treated to a partial solar eclipse, with the moon appearing to take a bite out of the sun and obscuring part of its light.

Here’s everything you need to know about the rare celestial event.

What is a solar eclipse?

Solar eclipses occur when the sun, moon and Earth align. The moon passes between Earth and sun, temporarily blocking the sun’s light and casting a shadow on Earth.

A total solar eclipse is when the moon fully obscures the sun, whereas a partial solar eclipse means it blocks just a portion of the sun’s face.

Solar eclipses occur only with the new moon. Because the moon’s orbit around Earth is tilted, the three bodies don’t always line up in a way that creates an eclipse.

“Imagine if the moon’s orbit were in the plane of Earth’s orbit around the sun — if that were the case, then every new moon, you’d have a total solar eclipse and every full moon, you’d have a lunar eclipse,” Neil DeGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History, told NBC News. “So, because things don’t always align, it lends to the rarity of the event and the specialness of the event.”

Where and when will the eclipse be visible?

This year’s eclipse will follow a slightly wider path over more populated areas of the continental U.S. than other total solar eclipses have in the recent past.

NASA estimates that 31.6 million people live within what’s known as the path of totality, where the total solar eclipse will be visible. An additional 150 million people live within 200 miles of the path, according to the agency.

The path travels through Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. Tiny parts of Michigan and Tennessee will also be able to witness totality if conditions are clear.

After the eclipse crosses into Canada, it will pass over southern Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Cape Breton, at the eastern end of Nova Scotia.

Those outside the path of totality can still take part in the astronomical event by viewing a partial solar eclipse — visible throughout all 48 states of the contiguous U.S. — or a NASA livestream.

The timing, including how long totality lasts, depends on the location, but some spots will see the moon fully cover the sun for up to 4 minutes and 28 seconds.

Below is a list of timings for some cities along the path of totality, as  provided by NASA . A number of other resources, including NationalEclipse.com  and  TimeandDate.com , can also help people plan.

• Dallas: Partial eclipse begins at 12:23 p.m. CT and totality at 1:40 p.m.
• Little Rock, Arkansas: Partial eclipse begins at 12:33 p.m. CT and totality at 1:51 p.m.
• Cleveland: Partial eclipse begins at 1:59 p.m. ET and totality at 3:13 p.m.
• Buffalo, New York: Partial eclipse begins at 2:04 p.m. ET and totality at 3:18 p.m.
• Lancaster, New Hampshire: Partial eclipse begins at 2:16 p.m. ET and totality at 3:27 p.m.

How to safely view a solar eclipse

It is never safe to gaze directly at the sun, even when it is partly or mostly covered by the moon. Special eclipse glasses or  pinhole projectors  are required to safely view solar eclipses and prevent eye damage. Failing to take the proper precautions can result in severe eye injury,  according to NASA .

Eclipse glasses are thousands of times darker than normal sunglasses and specially made to enable wearers to look at the sun during these kinds of celestial events.

Sky-watchers should also never view any part of the sun through binoculars, telescopes or camera lenses unless they have specific solar filters attached. Eclipse glasses should not be used with these devices, as they will not provide adequate protection.

However, during the few minutes of totality, when the moon is fully blocking the sun, it is safe to look with the naked eye.

Beware of fake eclipse glasses. On legitimate pairs, the lenses should have a silver appearance on the front and be black on the inside. The manufacturer’s name and address should be clearly labeled, and they should not be torn or punctured. Check, as well, for the ISO logo and the code “IS 12312-2” printed on the inside.

If you don’t have eclipse glasses, you can make a homemade pinhole projector, which lets sunlight in through a small hole, focuses it and projects it onto a piece of paper, wall or other surface to create an image of the sun that is safe to look at. 

All you need is two pieces of white cardboard or plain white paper, aluminum foil and a pin or thumbtack. Cut a 1- to 2-inch square or rectangle out of the center of a piece of white paper or cardboard. Tape aluminum foil over that cut-out shape, then use a pin or thumbtack to poke a tiny hole in the foil.

During the eclipse, place a second piece of white paper or cardboard on the ground as a screen and hold the projector with the foil facing up and your back to the sun. Adjusting how far you hold the projector from the second piece of paper will alter the size of the image on the makeshift screen.

What to look for while viewing the total solar eclipse

For people along the path of totality, there are some fun milestones to keep track of as the total solar eclipse unfolds.

As the eclipse progresses and the sun gets thinner in the sky, it will start to get eerily dark, according to Tyson.

When the last beams of sunlight are about to become obscured, look out for the “diamond ring effect”: The sun’s atmosphere will appear as an illuminated halo, and the last light still visible will look like the diamond of a giant ring.

As the sunlight decreases even further, an effect known as Baily’s beads will be created by the moon’s rugged terrain. Tiny “beads” of light will be visible for only a few seconds around the dark moon, as the last bits of sunlight peer through the moon’s mountains and valleys.

When the moon is fully blocking the sun, it is safe to remove eclipse glasses and look at the total solar eclipse with the naked eye.

Some lucky sky-watchers may even catch a glimpse of a comet .

Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks — nicknamed the “ devil comet ” because an eruption last year left it with two distinct trails of gas and ice in the shape of devil horns — is currently visible from the Northern Hemisphere as it swings through the inner solar system.

The comet can be seen in the early evenings by gazing toward the west-northwest horizon. During the eclipse, when skies darken during totality, it may be possible to see the comet near Jupiter, but its visibility will depend on whether it’s in the middle of an outburst and thus brighter than normal.

Most likely, all eyes will be on the alignment of the moon and sun.

“Most people won’t even notice,” Tyson said. “But if you know to look, it’s there.”

When is the next solar eclipse?

The next total solar eclipse will be in 2026, but it will mostly pass over the Arctic Ocean, with some visibility in Greenland, Iceland, Portugal and northern Spain. In 2027, a total solar eclipse will be visible in Spain and a swath of northern Africa.

The next total solar eclipse visible from North America will be in 2033, but only over Alaska. Then in 2044, a total solar eclipse will cross Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, parts of Canada and Greenland.

The next total solar eclipse to cross the continental U.S. coast-to-coast in will occur in 2045. The path of totality for that eclipse will cut through California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia and Florida.

Denise Chow is a reporter for NBC News Science focused on general science and climate change.

Lucas Thompson is a content producer for the NBC News Climate Unit.

6 Fun Activities That Will Make Kids Light Up on Solar Eclipse Day

The 2024 solar eclipse is T-minus three days away, and there are so many fun things your kids can do ahead of The Big Day. In case you haven't been keeping up with your solar news, here's the 411: On April 8, a solar eclipse is projected to pass over North America, with more than a dozen states - Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine - possibly seeing a total eclipse. Basically, the moon will line up between the Earth and the sun, making it appear like the sun is completely covered by the moon.

The next total solar eclipse isn't projected for another 20 years, but don't worry, kiddos in other states can expect to see at least a partial eclipse - so long as the skies stay clear and they have the safety gear to do so. And if clouds do make an appearance, your family can always turn to NASA's broadcast .

In the build-up to the natural phenomenon, there are plenty of fun things you can do with your kids to keep them excited and *whispers* educated.

1. Make A Pinhole Viewer

If you don't have the proper glasses - and/or you're looking for an activity to keep the kiddos busy - you can build a pinhole eclipse projector with your little engineers. All you need are two pieces of paper, a pair of scissors, some tin foil, tape, and either a pin or pencil (or something similar) to poke a hole. NASA has some easy-to-follow instructions . Once your kid has the basics, they can decorate their viewer to their heart's content!

"You hold [the pinhole viewer] with the sun behind your head, so it's indirect," Dr. David Rogers, chief of ophthalmology at  Nationwide Children's Hospital  and chairman of the  AAPOS Solar Eclipse Task Force tells SheKnows Health Editor Maggie Ryan. "You can safely look at what's going on behind you because you're seeing the shadow of the sun, and you can watch the partial phases of the eclipse."

2. Make Art Prints

This project from Scholastic is a great way to show kids just how powerful the sun's UV rays are. Give each child at your "viewing party" a piece of colored construction paper. Then have them gather small items from the backyard (like rocks, flowers, or leaves) or small toys with interesting shapes that they don't mind having outside. Place these items on the paper and then cover the sheet with clear plastic wrap or plexiglass so the items don't blow away.

After the eclipse, remove the plastic wrap and the items to reveal the new pattern on the page. The spots that were covered by a leaf or toy will be a different shade than the exposed paper. Maybe this art project will finally convince your kids not to put up a fight over sunscreen. (Here's hoping!)

3. Participate In Centuries-Long Research

T(w)eens who are especially into STEM or those who are passionate about making a difference can participate in the Eclipse Soundscapes Project . The project began in the 1930s when scientists asked the public to study how an eclipse affected animal and insect behavior. Nearly 500 personal observations were compiled, and similar studies - including one done by the National Park Services in 2017 - have been conducted since then. By collecting audio or visual information or sharing written experiences, kids can help "advance soundscape ecology and scientific exploration."

4. Create A Ring Light Eclipse Model

Little selfie kings and queens will be so ready for this eclipse demonstration from Exploratorium . With black construction paper, white paper, scissors, a black marker, a ruler, tape, a skewer, a hole punch, and a small ring light, kids can simulate an eclipse of their own.

5. Watch Something Fun

Part of what's great about Solar Eclipse Day is that it gets kids off the couch and outside. But if they're going to have some screentime on the 8th (or beforehand), it might as well be educational! There are endless informational videos on YouTube like this one from National Geographic , this one from Peekaboo Kidz , and this one from PBS .

6. Prepare The Snacks!

If there was ever a time to stock up on Moon Pies, Sun Chips, Cosmic Brownies, Mars Bars, Milky Ways, and Starbursts, it's now! After all, the next total solar eclipse isn't until 2044.

More from SheKnows

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