What Makes Content Interesting

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     It's obvious. Everybody loves interesting content and nobody likes boring content.  The difference between the two is not quite so obvious.  To understand it, you must consider more than the words.  You have to consider the people involved.  You've heard it takes two to tango?  That's just as true when it comes to engaging content.   I'll use video content to explain.
     My wife loves Murder She Wrote and America's Funniest Videos.  She doesn't like any of the 'Freddie" or "Halloween" series.  Nor will she watch a movie when somebody curses repeatedly.  Throw some blood on the screen and she heads to bed.  Even if it's bad guy blood.
     To enjoy a movie, it must make sense to her.  It can't contain random violence or consistently unacceptable language.   It has to stay true to it's message.  When Carrie Fisher's head spun around, she jumped. She understood that "The Exorcist" would be scary.  When Steve Martin's head spun, she laughed.  A movie called  "The Jerk"  had to be funny.  And she totally got the message a severed horse head sent.  But she didn't bother watching Natural Born Killers.  She wasn't even remotely interested in it.  Even when I brought it home from the video store. 
     Natural Born Killers grossed $61,615,296.  That means a lot of other people found it very interesting.  How is that possible?  Why would they watch a movie my wife wouldn't  even consider?   It's because Natural Born Killers delivered on it's promise.  The title was very clear on what you could expect.  And that's exactly what it gave it's interested viewers.
      So what does this mean to you as an author? How can you use this epiphany to write better content?    You can work on your style of writing.  You can work on verbiage and phrasing.  You can practice on the presentation of content.  But you can't interest a vegetarian in a chicken sandwich.   Interesting content is determined by the reader, not the writer.  It's important you get the content to an interested reader.
     Write an article about something that interest you.  My next article will be about finding interested readers!

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