How to Make Your Article Stand Out

Get your story to shine amid the proliferation of content, without being clickbaity

Across decades of print and online journalism, I’ve edited way too many news and feature articles that just did not stand out. These are the stories that were not special or surprising or unique in any way and therefore had no competitive advantage—no reason for anyone to read them instead of the many options offered up elsewhere by thousands of bright and dim bulbs—from top-notch writers at great publications to lowly “content creators” blogging anything they think will make a buck.

I’ve written several duds, too. Nobody is perfect.

But what’s most interesting to me is that many of the stories that don’t stand out are actually well-written. But in many cases when a story flops — and stories flop for many reasons, not all of them in your control —the writer committed a sin of complacency.

There’s some history to this complacency problem among writers that I wish to air. Bear with me, as it’s instructive for writers in our modern era of ubiquitous content…

Back in the day, when stories came rolled up in newsprint and bound by a rubber band, a humdrum article could find a sizable and even appreciative audience by virtue of being the only article anybody bothered to write on a particular topic. Local newspapers leaned on this crutch daily, profiting not just from great writing but also from often mediocre writing (especially in the Sports section!)—because they were the only game in town. When I worked at The Star-Ledger in New Jersey, we did some great journalism. But there was also a bounty of mediocre stuff every day, local news and sports that tended to be accurate and readable, but rarely what you’d call outstanding writing. We knew we were getting away with something because there was no competition (and it’d all be fishwrap or birdcage liner by morning).

Now, any moderately interesting shred of news might be digested and regurgitated by dozens of mainstream journalists, hundreds of niche publications, thousands of bloggers and millions of social media know-it-alls—all before most of us are even aware the event occurred. That’s not news to you, I know, but it’s the reality you must deal with as a non-fiction writer of any stripe.

In today’s saturated information environment, in which news (and rumor, and hype, and everything else having to do with an event or idea) has been largely reduced to a commodity, journalists, bloggers, and non-fiction article writers working in any capacity can easily fall into the trap of following the crowd.

But you want to stand out. You want your article to shine brighter than the rest. You want it to go viral, or at least find a good number of appreciative eyeballs.

Image: Pixabay/ColiN00B

So before you spew more digital ink into the sea of stories, I have a helpful screening tool to apply to your next draft. It’s one I’ve taught writers since the 1990s, one that works just as well today, and one I try to remember to employ with each of my own stories.

Ask yourself if you can embody at least one of these three things:

• Be First (hard!)

• Be Best (hard!)

• Sideways (easier!)

This is super simple in concept, somewhat more challenging to put into practice, and most of all, easy to forget or ignore each time we get excited about writing our next great work. So let’s look at exactly how to use my screening tool, with examples ranging from Luke Perry’s death to the shocking discovery of little green men on Mars.