A Ridiculously Easy Way to Turn a Listicle into a Non-Listicle

A lot of us hate listicles.

They are so common on blogging sites, that they make us roll our eyes.

A few years back, I used to love listicles, especially the funny ones on Buzzfeed. But now, I’ve gotten so sick of them. Most of my friends on Medium are fed up with them, too. In fact, I would worry about tanking my reputation if I wrote listicles.

Yes, I know not literally everybody hates them. If some writers are still writing listicles, they must have an audience for them.

But you know what? There’s a simple trick to transform a dull-looking listicle into something that looks more interesting.

Are you ready for it?

Remove all numbers from your title and subtitles.

I’m not joking. It really is that easy. I wasn’t the first to come up with the idea, though. Some seasoned writers here have done just that. I could tell that their story was a listicle, but it didn’t feel like one because they cleverly made their article number-free.

Of course, they can include interesting stats or relevant numbers, such as how many posts they have written so far on Medium. But otherwise, no numerals!

I’ve even tried this strategy for myself, with my article “Moments When I Felt Happiest and Most Alive”.

This was really “10 Moments When I Felt Happiest and Most Alive”. Or worse, “Top 10 Moments In My Life,” which would be incredibly cliche and boring. But by simply tossing all the numbers in the trash, my article looks a lot more appealing to click on.

My subtitles in the article were obviously just items on my list of 10. But stripped bare of these pesky numbers, they suddenly look like harmless and even wholesome episodes in my life.

By the way, if you enjoyed that article and now feel duped that I pulled this “trick” on you, so that you couldn’t see that it was a listicle in disguise, I hope you’ll forgive me.

A list is not inherently evil. It’s just the numbers that make a reader yawn in boredom. It’s funny how the packaging and delivery trump the actual content of an article, eh?

What are your thoughts on this trick to turn a listicle into a non-listicle? Does this sound like a sleazy way to con the masses? Or just a sensible strategy to avoid being shunned by friends who hate listicles just as much as you do?

Originally published in Writers' Blokke on Dec 19, 2022