When Your Readers Totally Overreact
Some of my stories have gotten a lot of attention lately. I don’t write to be provocative or to get people riled up. But here are a few reasons why I think that’s happening — and I see it happening everywhere.
People react to the headline
Some people click on a story because the headline grabs them and they immediately want to challenge the author based on that alone.
People lost their minds when they read the flannel shirt story because they assumed that I rejected a man based on that factor alone — which I did not.
The story above has a great headline. I know this because it got a lot of attention, which is what we seek to do as writers.
This was intended to get people to see how I dissected this particular observation — nothing more, nothing less.
