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Magnetic writing enemy: boredom

The epidemic of boredom has attacked nearly everything.

All the new things are boring these days. Innovation in all fields is now at record low levels. New scientific and technological devices may be impressive on a technical perspective, but for the average unimpressed consumer, they’re just more marketing nonsense.

They’ve even managed to make smartphones boring these days. The latest phones from Samsung, HTC, Apple, Nokia, LG, etc. may have new features and sky-high prices, but they offer astonishingly little in terms of actual benefits over older, cheaper handsets.

But what does this have to with magnetic writing, you ask? It’s because writing, by default, is boring. It’s not interactive like a video. It’s not even as interactive as audio. It’s the oldest and safest method of communication, but writing isn’t enough these days.

You could end up writing something which is useful for your readers, but most of them won’t even bother to fully read it.

Why? They’re bored. They need help to turn the page even because there is so much they can do, so many things demanding their attention. Market saturation? Yes. But we can still defeat boredom.

We can still make our writing magnetic by ensuring it isn’t boring first. To change the default condition of a piece of writing from boring to compelling, here are the things you should keep in mind for transformation:

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What is good writing?

Good writing. More precisely, a piece of writing or multiple pieces of writing which have been labelled with the quality of goodness. Everyone strives to have their writing become, through hard work, good writing. Good writing is a great thing, a thing to strive for.

But what is it, really?

Why is that we don’t have a single complete definition of what exactly good writing means?

Is it because good writing is subjective? After all, for one person, a piece of writing may be good. But that same piece of writing could be pathetic for a different reader. There lies the problem. Any definition of good writing won’t hold water for a second if it’s based on the writer’s own opinion. One could say, “good writing is writing which contains so-and-so”, and then a reader with different likes / dislikes will say: “What? Those qualities worsen a piece of writing instead of the other way around…”

How can anyone define good writing when people are not really thinking of good writing as such but good writing for them (a substantial difference) and when people are thinking of effective writing and not good writing?

Takeaway: let’s forget “good writing” for a moment. Consider a different concept, effective writing. Why? Because that can be measured. And the measurement leads to comparison in terms of degrees. The most effective writing turns out to be irresistible writing. Irresistible writing, in the proper context, leads to magnetic, award-winning, profit-making and productive writing.

With that in mind, let’s move on to the qualities of good writing — ahem, I mean effective writing…

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