Keeping Your Readers Hooked - Connectors and Disconnectors

Keeping your readers hooked is as easy as building chains in your writing

Photo by Kevin Wong

Have you ever read a book so good you can’t seem to put it down? It’s like you’re a giant metal and an extremely powerful magnet has just came near you. You keep your face buried under that book for the rest of the day, or sometimes even for the rest of the week, all while neglecting work commitments and chores.

I know I’ve been there and while most of the books I can’t put down are fiction, there are a handful of sales copies that I consumed from start to finish in one seating. Naturally, I studied them. How did they make me, a busy man, stop my other priorities to sit down here and let them pitch to me?

I dedicated a whole weekend to study them. There are a lot of great lessons that I found but here’s probably one of the best: the correct use of connectors and disconnectors.

What are connectors and how can I use them keep my readers hooked?

Connectors are words that connects one idea to another. Some connector words are “therefore”, “but”, “then” and so on. You get the idea. Connectors keep your writing flowing and writings that flow keep readers in a trance.

As long as they are in a trance, they’ll keep reading.

As long as they are in a trance, they’ll keep reading.

The problem is, our brain often work quite the opposite. When newbies write, their brain would normally jump from one idea to another because they have so much to say and so their writing appears chopped and broken. Nothing flows.

I want you to read through your writing and hunt for disconnects. Here’s an example.

“Headline is the most powerful element of a sale copy because it grabs attention and gets your copy read. To craft a powerful headline, one of the most important element you need is curiosity. Curiosity occurs when there’s a disconnect in thoughts.

Specificity is also another important element of a headline…”

See how there’s a disconnect between curiosity and specificity? One moment you’re reading about curiosity and the next it’s specificity. It creates an itch that wakes readers from their trance (There’s a correct way to use disconnects and I’ll show it you later in this article). Now let’s take a look at an example of how to do with connectors.

“Headline is the most powerful element of a sale copy because it grabs attention and gets your copy read. To craft a powerful headline, one of the most important element you need is curiosity. Curiosity occurs when there’s a disconnect in thoughts.

But curiosity alone will not get your sales copy read if your readers that don’t believe you. That’s where specificity come in. Specificity is also another important element of a headline that…”

See how it flows now? That “But” is the connection between curiosity and specificity.

What are disconnectors and how can I use them to hook my readers?

Connectors keep your readers hooked. But you can’t KEEP someone hooked unless you hook them in the first place right?

You see, there’s a certain limit as to the efficiency of curiosity. You can’t keep readers hooked on one curious object forever

Disconnectors, should only be used for that purpose - to hook your readers. The example above is the WRONG way to use disconnects because it doesn’t create curiosity. Here’s an example for the RIGHT way to use disconnects.

“John is a middle aged man who was just fired form his job. He suspects his wife is about to get a divorce because their marriage has always been rocky and unemployment would surely tip the scale. He sat down one day to write a “goodbye” note. With a rope in one hand, he climbed onto a chair to tighten one end to the ceiling fan.

‘David! Get over here!’ Mary shouted. Mary is a mother of 3, David, John and Peter….”

Are you curious what is going to happen to John? There’s an obvious disconnect between the paragraphs and that’s done on purpose to hook the customer in before the “boring” part of the story. And in that “boring” part of the story, there’ll a lot of connectors to keep the readers hooked until they get to another interesting disconnect.

This combination of connects and disconnects pulls you back and forth like any TV drama would.

You see, there’s a certain limit as to the efficiency of curiosity. You can’t keep readers hooked on one curious object forever. Once a certain amount reading turned up nothing, they are bound to give up. That’s why you have to create more curiousity to keep them hooked.

When you disconnect, make sure you create