What writers and others say
“Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It’s the transition that’s troublesome.”
― Isaac Asimov
“Every chapter must end with a cliffhanger. On the spectrum of cliffhangers, the best are those involving physical danger. Next best are perceived threats — a mysterious shadow, a scream, the sight of a gun, the earth rumbling. Last on the list is the moderately acceptable dramatic realization, such as ‘he’s been lying to us all along’ or ‘she’s the real spy.’”
— Franklin W. Dixon, the pen name used by the various authors of The Hardy Boys novels, in “The Writer’s Guide to Hardy Boys Rack Books”
“Transitions are critically important. I want the reader to turn the page without thinking she’s turning the page. It must flow seamlessly.”
— Janet Evanovich, author of the Stephanie Plum series including Sizzling Sixteen
“Don’t stop them with any bumps in the road. Any spot in your structure that makes readers go ‘huh?’ is an invitation to quit reading.”
— David D. Fryxell, freelance writer, in Writer’s Digest
“Words do not create transition. Ideas do.”
— Peter Jacobi, journalism professor emeritus at Indiana University, in The Magazine Article: How to think it, plan it, write it
“Superfluous transitions harm your prose because they call unnecessary attention to its mechanics. They shout, ‘Look! Now I’m making a transition! Are you all with me?’”
— Nancy Kress, science fiction writer, in Writer’s Digest
“If we encounter thus, therefore, consequently and the like, we know that the next statement should follow logically from whatever has already been presented. If we see nevertheless, still, all the same or the like, we must be prepared for a statement that reverses direction.”
— Bonnie J. F. Meyer, Ph.D., professor of Educational Psychology, Penn State
“The two capital secrets in the art of prose composition are these: first the philosophy of transition and connection; or the art by which one step in an evolution of thought is made to arise out of another: all fluent and effective composition depends on the connections; secondly; the way in which sentences are made to modify each other; for the most powerful effects in written eloquence arise out of this reverberation, as it were, from each other in a rapid succession of sentences.”
— Thomas de Quincy, English author and intellectual, best known for his book Confessions of an English Opium-Eater
What structure draws more readers?
Writers say, “We use the inverted pyramid because readers stop reading after the first paragraph.” But in new research, readers say, “We stop reading after the first paragraph because you use the inverted pyramid.”
If the traditional news structure doesn’t work, how should we organize our messages?
Want to master a structure that’s been proven in the lab to outperform the traditional news format. If so, bring Ann in to present Catch Your Readers — a persuasive-writing course — to your team.
There, they’ll learn an organizing scheme that grabs readers’ attention, keeps it for the long haul and leaves a lasting impression.