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Author of the article here. It's definitely not about ads. On principle, we don't host ads on Damn Interesting, and we never have. We aim for narrative non-fic
by DamnInteresting 6y ago
Author of the article here. It's definitely not about ads. On principle, we don't host ads on Damn Interesting, and we never have.
We aim for narrative non-fiction, to tell a true story that keeps the reader intrigued throughout. We've found over the years that stories with a good "hook" or "teaser" seem to be best received by readers. We've also found that people want some background on the people/places they are reading about, and this often requires us to jump back in time after the teaser to fill in the relevant information.
If your goal is just to extract the basic bones of the story rather than to be entertained for a while, you probably won't like this article, nor the others in our catalog. Our approach to storytelling is not for everybody. And that's okay with us--trying to please everyone is the short road to clickbait town.
- JKCalhoun 6y agoThank you, author. I actually like the style - it is entertaining. And in fact, the guys back story was almost the highlight really. Laying himself off to collect unemployment ... what a piece of work.
- oneeyedpigeon 6y agoFWIW, I thought it was a highly entertaining read and well written. This style of introduction followed by a 'rewind to the beginning' is pretty common in my experience, particularly in magazine articles including longform newspaper pieces, here in the UK. I don't know why anyone would associate it with clickbait - I find that strange. If I were being hyper critical, I'd suggest maybe some kind of visual section break, like one of those stylised wavy lines - I have no idea what they're called!