Title power: Love at first sight decides the outcome 13

We often think that writing is a matter for journalists and writers alone. In fact, writing requires division of labor and cooperation. When I was a reporter, I worked in Caixun Monthly. The monthly deadline process is that the reporter writes the manuscript, the editor-in-chief reads it, and then the vice president finalizes the topic, and finally gives it to the post-production to complete the typesetting.

The deputy editor-in-chief (we all call him "Mr. Yin") is a middle-aged uncle. He doesn't have to interview, he doesn't have to write a manuscript, he is only responsible for writing the title. He writes titles and subtitles on manuscripts with blue ballpoint pens, and he often leaves his own handwriting on manuscripts. I often see him deep in thought or staring into the distance. Sometimes I will call the reporter and ask the focus of the report. After I get the news, I will start to conceive the title.

Every month, Mr. Yin only appears on the deadline. His work seems simple, but it can make the finishing point. The titles he writes often make people smile and understand easily, and one line of titles can almost convey the meaning of the whole article.

A thousand words are not worth the title of a god.

Croatia won the third place in the 1998 World Cup, which attracted worldwide attention. My first article in Caixun Monthly was to write why this small country, which was independent from Yugoslavia and suffered from war, has such a strong sports strength.

I have forgotten what the content is about. I only remember the title set by teacher Yin: "Croatia's three wonders-football third, basketball second, war first", which points out the characteristics of this country in one sentence.

He also often uses figures to contrast and highlight the importance of the content, such as "Bill Gates works for half an hour, Clinton works hard for a whole year-the legend of the richest man in the world with 50 billion dollars", or rhymes to make two unrelated sentences have an interesting connection, such as "show here, crime there" or "polygamy, the biggest is Lao Tzu's dictatorship, and six sons and two daughters are in their places."

These ingenious pens often make the author painstakingly write articles that are not as memorable as a title. As Japanese writer Ryunosuke Akutagawa wrote in his last manuscript, The Life of a Fool: "Life is not as good as Baudelaire."

■ With a good title, readers will continue reading.

The title (that is, the title) at the beginning of an article needs the power of conciseness in one sentence, which is often the key for readers to decide whether to start reading. Reading is the opposite of writing: the author begins to think about the title after writing the article; Readers first notice the title and are interested, then read the first paragraph, or look at the subtitle of the whole article, and then they are willing to take the time to read it carefully after they have a general understanding.

Professional writers can work together, but most writers are a team of one person, so practice editing by yourself to help readers write attractive titles in articles, letters and plans, so that readers can know the key points at a glance and want to continue reading.

Don't ignore the importance of the title. This is the first look of your article, and the title is the eye of the article.

Be your own editor and cultivate the title power.

Headlines are everywhere. Bus carriage advertisements, subway station slogans and carriage advertisements are all headlines that catch the attention of passers-by. Web pages are also title battlefields. We browse the web, mostly by swiping our fingers quickly until we find the keywords we are interested in, and then we can click in and read them.

We can't passively accept the headline bombing, but take the initiative to attack and use the power of headlines to influence others. "Conciseness: The Art of Concise Expression" emphasizes: "Simply stating does not mean that the matter itself is simple. This is just to let others know and understand this matter. "

■ Writing headlines requires a new brain thinking.

When I used to be a reporter, I was only responsible for writing the manuscript, and the title was given to the post-production editor. I learned to write titles when I was the editor-in-chief of a journal. This is completely different from writing. Writing needs a new brain and reader's perspective to make the title more attractive.

Headline power is a kind of translation ability of interpretation, which needs to be condensed into a title to convey complex content. We should use the least words and the most concentrated information, from the reader's objective standpoint, instead of the original subjective author's thinking, and convey it to readers accurately and attractively.

■ Excellent titles should have a sense of picture.

A good title should not only be accurate, but also establish the reader's inner sense of image. "Instantly explaining important things" emphasizes that when a sentence enters people's minds in the form of information, people actually don't understand it through words, but first convert the words into images and then understand it. Therefore, with a sense of image, the title text can be effectively grasped and understood by readers.

With thinking in images, you can make the title better. Try to make the content you want to express titled, simplified and visualized, and express it clearly in short words.

I used to be a reporter for financial magazines, and I was good at thinking in words. Later, I transferred to GQ international Chinese edition as deputy editor-in-chief What shocked me most was the topic selection meeting. Financial magazines focus on topics, while fashion magazines focus on vision.

In order to perform visual tasks, I spent a long time learning thinking in images. For example, if you want to communicate with the photographer and shoot the picture you want to edit, you must first find the reference image, and you must survey the scenery in advance to find out the shooting point. Post-production, if the photo can't pass the artistic director's clearance, it will be reshoot. Finally, discuss with the editor-in-chief and write accurate and interesting titles.

The training of picture sense urges me to use titles and pictures to build readers' visual sense. When I started my speech and lecture, the content of the briefing was like the layout of a magazine, with pictures and titles. For the audience and students, it can be clear at a glance, without reading the text carefully, and there are images to help them understand and remember.

■ Key sentences

When discussing students' articles in writing class, I will also find out the key sentences according to the key points, and then propose the suggested titles. For example, a student interviews a hair stylist. He calls himself a barber, not a designer. He likes to cut a simple hairstyle, does not recommend customers to dye their hair, and usually leads a simple life. After listening to the key points described by the students, I helped draw up the title: "Single Life by Cutting Meat". In one sentence, students can instantly understand and focus on the core of the article, and accurately write the barber's story with the pun and simple principle of haircut.

When you are your own editor, you need to have different thinking, from the author's thinking to the editor's title thinking. Read the article again from the reader's point of view, find one point and three key points of the article, and then think with the ROA thinking skills put forward in the second lesson: Why should readers read it? What did you get after reading it? What title will make him think? If you think from these angles, you can write a clear and easy-to-understand title.

Creating reading friction points: four principles and six skills

Not only did reading in the paper age rely on titles in the past, but now online reading also depends on a large number of titles. Kang Wenbing, a senior editor, analyzed in "The Seven Powers of Editors" that Internet users would wander around every page, trying to find the most attractive fragments. He reminded media workers to pay attention to arranging "reading friction points" on the layout, and to handle these friction points carefully.

The friction point is the obstacle point that makes readers pay attention and don't swim fast. Therefore, the fastest way to catch the reader's eye is to use the title to set a "reading friction point" to stimulate the reader's eye. Smooth reading without friction is not easy to attract readers' attention, and sparks need to be created to highlight the highlights. "Editor's Seven Forces" emphasizes: "A title that can arouse readers' interest, promote sales and strengthen long-term brand positioning is a good title without distortion. "

Reading friction points has three purposes: touching the heart, bringing freshness and creating tension. Touching people's hearts means using what readers are familiar with and care about to arouse the voice of * * *. Bringing freshness is to create a freshness that makes readers curious and makes readers want to know the follow-up content. The purpose of creating tension is to stimulate readers' emotions and make them eager to know the answer.

How to create reading friction points? There are mainly four principles and six skills. In The Complete Handbook of Copywriting, Robert Bly believes that headlines have four functions: attracting attention, screening audiences, conveying complete information and guiding readers to read copywriting and text. Under these four functions, Bly pointed out four U principles of effective headlines.

■ sense of urgency

The first one is urgent: give readers a reason to take immediate action, such as adding time elements (limited time offers, deadlines).

■ uniqueness

The second is unique: describing new things or presenting known content in new ways.

■ Clear and specific

Third, be clear and specific: the content should be very clear and easy to understand, with sufficient information or a sense of picture.

■ Practical benefits

The fourth is useful (practical benefits): there are benefits, such as saving time and money, solving problems and improving shortcomings.

The four-U principle makes us think. What characteristics does the title of the article want to highlight, and which U do you convey? Then think about how to use the title technique to meet the four U principles.

I summed up six headline skills, namely, directness, questioning, comparison, connection, extremes and numbers.

Pure white

Communicate ideas and golden sentences directly and clearly with the skill of one sentence. For example, my own book "Traveler's Food Calendar", "Lohas National Calendar" and "Go Your Own Way and Be a Storyteller: Seek the Power of Change from the Context of Life". Several writing topics are also straightforward, such as The Seven Powers of Editors, Harvard Non-fiction Writing Course, How The Wall Street Journal Tells Stories, and Writing Magic Weapons: A Guide to Non-fiction Writing.

ask a question

A straightforward narrative is not necessarily attractive, and asking questions with "why" can increase readers' curiosity. For example, why not buy the cheapest air ticket: economists teach you to reduce the risk of everything in life and make the best choice, why do we live and work like this, and why do we have no feeling about GDP growth: does GDP not tell you digital growth or people's happiness? Is your refrigerator an angel or a devil?

contrast ratio

There are contrasts between sentences with opposite meanings, and they compete with each other, which is most likely to produce reading sparks. The best-selling books Rich Dad, Poor Dad or Don't choose comfort when you should struggle, Don't be emotional when you should use your head, and Imagine that a small country wins a big one with a small one, all of which use two extremely opposite terms, creating a spark of contrast.

Lian Jie

Use the linking effect of bedding stalks to connect two unrelated sentences, or create conflicts and highlight differences. The stalks connected in the middle can be produced by homonyms, homonyms and rhyming words. For example, "Show here, commit crimes there", newspaper headlines "Internet celebrities, don't be addicted to the internet", headlines "Your so-called stability is just a waste of life", "You are either outstanding or outstanding", "Health comes from your spine", "Good posture, save your spine" and so on are all very creative.

You can also use another keyword to connect two unrelated nouns. For example, "Fate is visible, but the pain in the liver area is invisible-regular liver disease screening can keep you away from the pain in the liver area", and the fate of palm prints is "invisible".

Pole end

The strongest words emphasized the importance and urgency. For example, first, only, best, highest, etc. For example, the movie title "The Darkest Hour" and "First Contact". Books: Picking the Lowest Fruit, Last Year of Productivity, Last Fourteen Tuesdays, One-Man Company, Big Audit, Big Data, Little Data Hunter, etc.

digital

The use of numbers is a more rational communication, which makes readers understand more concretely. For example, the second curve, three ways of thinking, 80/20 personal revolution, the fourth consumption era, six questions can convince all kinds of people, and the fifth discipline, marketing 3.0 and marketing 4.0.

Title four positioning: four title types

Mastering the four U principles and six skills of headline power can produce reading friction. However, even if you master these headline skills, it is easy to ignore the overall positioning.

At this time, the use of "title four positioning" helps writers to do a good job of title positioning first, and then use the four U principles and six skills, as well as imitation and transformation, to enhance their title power.

A writer should think first. Do you want to convey concrete benefits so that people can understand them at first sight, or do you want to remind readers to face up to the existing problems with strong words? The former is radish-like positive thinking, encouragement and support; The latter is a negative expression, which challenges readers' cognition and then stimulates and urges them with a big stick. These two effects are quite different. Then think about how to present it, whether by asking questions or simply conveying it. Is it to create curiosity, or is it clear at a glance? Finally, we can decide whether the topic type should be "viewpoint topic", "question topic", "warning topic" or "suspense topic".

■ Viewpoint title

The characteristic of "viewpoint title" is to make clear the benefits or clear positions and key points [that is, the usefulness (practical benefits) of the four U principles], so that people can see at a glance, without beating around the bush or dragging their feet. For example, Cutting Single Life uses two techniques: directness and connection, and pun conveys the author's point of view.

■ Question title

The characteristic of "question title" is to use question skills to make readers curious about what benefits they can get after reading it. You can turn the title of the opinion into a corner and add a question mark to increase the curious effect. Sometimes because the article itself is too straightforward, an interesting question will ignite readers' curiosity to find out.

For example, "why instant noodles are always curved" and "why" add freshness and interest to what was taken for granted. Or why do Indians eat curry every day? This book is about the mysteries of various Indian cultures, but the culture is too abstract, and Curry is visually familiar. Starting from this little problem, it is simple and interesting.

■ Warning title

Compared with the first two kinds of positive headlines, "warning headlines" emphasize the negative and negative aspects that make people nervous.

"Warning headlines" will use contrast to highlight "What will happen if you don't do this …" and have a sense of urgency to change immediately. For example, your so-called stability is just a waste of life. Don't get emotional when you should think. Getting rid of poverty is more important than getting rid of bills.

Or break the general cognition and attract readers with reverse thinking. Adding a "no" will immediately produce different effects, such as "the Renaissance is not beautiful", which will break the good impression of the Renaissance, and "the rich are different from what you think" will also make people wonder where it is different.

■ suspense title

"Suspense question" is to make "warning question" curious, insider and even a little dark suspense by asking questions.

Cheers Happy Workers magazine once used the suspense title method for the hot topic "Slash Youth" and wrote the cover title of "Slash Life, Is It Really Suitable for You", which added a sense of doubt and uneasiness to the positive meaning of slash.

The other is "suspense comparison method". The title of the website of Federal magazine, "Why does a small hospital in Chiayi let the most people in Taiwan Province choose how to die here?" By comparing the extreme, questioning and negative dark "death" with the hospital, it is very attractive and makes people care about the reasons. Why not buy the cheapest air ticket: economists teach you to reduce the risk of everything in life and make the best choice? Why does GDP grow, but we don't feel it: does GDP not tell you digital growth or people's happiness? Is your refrigerator an angel or a devil? Why do share prices frequently bottom out? It also belongs to this contrast method that surprises readers.

Writing requires 99% effort, but the title of 1% will be visible to you.

How to use the six skills of title right

These six skills can also be mixed with each other to create a stronger title. There is a title in Vision Magazine, "Why do little people always have to bear big responsibilities". It emphasizes that little people who work silently are not concerned, but when something goes wrong, it is often unlucky little people who bear the responsibility. "Why Will There Be Surplus or Bankruptcy" also uses the way of asking questions and comparing, which makes readers feel contradictory and more curious.

You can also use imitation and transformation to create your own titles. Imitating following the trend means imitating existing popular nouns and then transforming them into their own titles. This is also a skill to make readers understand the general meaning at a glance by using familiarity, and there is no need to explain more.

For example, by observing the book list, we can quickly understand the current popular headline trends. For example, Harvard is a popular term, which stands for credibility and guarantee:

Straightforward: the way to success taught by Harvard Business School: learn from the experience of the world's top business schools, your posture determines who you are, and Harvard psychology teaches you to use body language to turn inferiority into confidence.

Question: "Why do our decisions often go wrong? Nine psychology courses taught by Harvard professor.

Contrast: ball science: Harvard runner He Kaicheng flipped education and easily entered Harvard.

Connection: posture determines who you are, and Harvard psychology teaches you to use body language to turn inferiority into confidence.

Extreme: happier: Harvard's most popular class, remember who you are: Harvard's last class.

Numbers: "Emotional sensitivity, Harvard psychology guides you to decouple emotions in four steps."

McKinsey or Neusoft Japan is also a hot headline keyword:

It is straightforward: "The challenge is impossible! McKinsey uses an absolutely feasible way of thinking.

Question: Why do smart people use checkered notebooks: the secret weapon of Cornell University and McKinsey consultants, and McKinsey's problem analysis and problem-solving skills: why do they ask questions and the answers follow?

Contrast: Cunning reading methods: changing the learning order, I changed from a college loser to an ace lawyer.

Connection: End low diligence, McKinsey elite teaches you useful efforts.

Extreme: The strongest surprise reading method of Dongda University

Numbers: "McKinsey asks questions accurately, 1 sec thinks, breaks through blind spots and goes straight to the core of the problem! 》

The hated courage has been popular for quite some time, which has created the popularity of the words "quilt" and "courage". If you imitate these two words and add different nouns and verbs, you can also create your own title. For example, the courage to be criticized, the aversion to business opportunities, the monopolistic mind, the forgotten genius, the appreciated technology, and the island hit by the Kuroshio.

The other is the Courage Series. Courage without education, courage to grow old, courage to discipline, courage to empty nest, courage to be yourself, courage to act, courage is unnecessary.

Emotional blackmail is also a bestseller, and this title has become a sentence imitated by many titles. One is to use the contrast method, adding a "no" will produce new effects, such as "5 1 a method not to be blackmailed by emotions", that is to say, negation is affirmation and becomes a positive method.

Before and after emotional blackmail, adding new verbs and nouns can also create new titles. For example, in the face of emotional blackmail from family members, don't use emotional blackmail to raise children, isolate emotional blackmail, and arrange a warm mood for yourself. The other is to use "emotion" and add new words: emotional parasitism and emotional shadow.