Put people first

Good writing is all about people. If a tree falls over in a wood, what we care about is whether it hit anyone. What we write about is what happens to people, what the impact is on people, how people react.

An asteroid hit Canada today,

is badly written because it does not address what is most important.

Hundreds were killed and thousands injured when an asteroid hit Canada today,

immediately tells us the scale of the events, and gives us and idea of the impact (excuse the pun) on our lives. After all, if the asteroid was only 1cm across and fell in a lake harming no one, it is not much of a story.

If there is more than one group of people in a story, focus on those your readers are most likely sympathise with. In fact, most of the time, your readers (at least some of them) will be the subjects of your stories. If you are writing for a small business website:

The government has announced regulations on sewerage,

seems dull and irrelevant.

People who make textiles say it will cost them millions to implement new sewerage regulations,

grabs the readers' attention a little better. It is the same story, but it has been written to focus on individuals.

There is an order of priority for deciding who should be the main subject of a story:

1. People like your readers


2. Representatives of people like your readers


3. Official organisations or government representatives

Only mention big anonymous organizations if you really cannot rewrite the story around individuals. Personal insight and case study material will work best, but remember it is arrogant to assume you are like your reader: don’t make yourself the case study.

Sometimes writers forget they are writing about people, and write about job titles. What someone has to say is usually more interesting and relevant than who they are.

Following the asteroid strike, Sir Hugh Jellicoe, Professor of Meteorology and Interplanetary Science at the University of Toronto said: "Run for your lives."

If the quote is as urgent as this, it is much better coming first. Even complete paragraphs can be turned around so that what someone has to say comes first, and the background comes afterwards. This can seem counter-intuitive, but by putting the interesting stuff first, we build up enough good will to keep the reader going through the boring stuff in the rest of the paragraph.