What Sudoku Puzzles Can Teach You About Hooking Readers Into Your How-To Articles

I have become hooked on solving Sudoku puzzles. It started off by just experimenting with the puzzles, but then it grew.

As I found myself working more and more of these things, I told myself I could quit anytime I wanted to, but it was already too late.

Now I cant go to sleep at night unless I have solved a Sudoku puzzle, and I cant eat a meal if a puzzle book is sitting beside my plate.

What does my pitiful story have to do with writing how-to articles? Simply this. Sudoku books start you off on the easy level so you can build your confidence. You work a few of the puzzles at this level and you become more confident and move on to a harder level. But by the time you graduate to a higher level of difficulty, they are challenging without being so impossible that you lose hope.

In order to hook a reader into your how-to article, you must do the same thing. First you must convince your readers that they really can learn to do whatever it is you are attempting to teach them.

The reader must never lose hope that he or she can reach a level of competency as a result of your instruction. This is the promise you make to your reader, that you will see them through the learning process and they will come out the other side skillful.

People are reluctant to attempt to learn new things. They have felt the sting of failure before and it hurts. Before you can teach them in your how-to article, you must first remove their fear of failure and replace it with confidence that if they follow the steps you lay out for them, they will acquire a new skill.

Which is exactly how the Sudoku puzzle constructors got me hooked. They built my confidence up one step at a time. This is the promise you make with your reader, follow me and when we get to the end of our journey, you will be the proud owner of new knowledge and a new ability.

But before you can teach your readers your how-to information, you must first sell them on the belief that they can do it.

COPYRIGHT(C) 2006, Charles Brown. All rights reserved.

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