The Headline:
Little Things Done Well Add Up

Award-winning writer Kathy Widenhouse has helped hundreds of nonprofits and writers produce successful content and has gained 600K+ views for her writing tutorials. She is the author of 9 books. See more of Kathy’s content here.

An online devotional for writers

A Word From The Word

If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. (Luke 16:10, NLT)

A Word for Writers

The title, the headline, the email subject line: how do you go about writing them?

Maybe you dash them off quickly, like an afterthought, once you're done with the heavy lifting in the rest of the content. 

It was in one of my earliest assignments that my first writing instructor called me out about this very issue. 

"How many headlines did you write before you decided on this one?" she asked.

 "Uh, just one," I stammered.

I could hear her shaking her head over the phone amidst disapproving clucks. 

All that purposeful care I'd spent on the article, she explained, did not matter if the reader does not get past the headline.

You hear it often: "It's the little things that count."

Eight out of 10 people read headlines, but just two out of 10 read the rest of the piece. They simply do not have time to read every blog post or tweet comes across their desk or their mobile screen. 

A headline or a caption or blog post title may seem inconsequential because its word count is proportionately a fraction compared with the rest of the article or content.

It's not necessarily a larger amount of time spent on seemingly "little things." Rather, it's the attention that counts. Little things done carefully add up to a big thing done well.

Titles, headlines, captions, subject lines, subheads: write them well. It's the little things that count. They add up.

A Wise Word

Write the little things well. 

A Word To Pray

Gracious Lord,

You are a God of details. Nothing is a last-minute, white-space filler for you. Help me give thought and attention to what seem to be "the little things" as I write.

In Jesus' name, Amen.

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