The U2 Method of High-Impact Writing

Want to become a high-impact writer? Make your articles stronger and your message hit harder by utilizing the U2 method of high-impact writing. You can use a 3 step method to easily catch the attention of readers from the very first sentence.

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, it’s indisputable that Bono and gang wrote some incredible, lasting pop songs. Tunes that become a part of people’s lives.

“One,” “Where the Streets Have No Name,” “Pride in the Name of Love,” “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” “New Year’s Day,” “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” “With or Without You,” “Beautiful Day,” the list goes on…

How does U2 have such high-impact songs? It all stems from Bono’s approach to songwriting: Write the best chorus you can, then make that the verse and write an even better chorus.

So simple, yet so effective.

3 Step Method to High-Impact Writing

What the heck does Bono’s songwriting have to do with us writers? This is Write to Done, not Songwriting to Done.

Answer: You can apply U2’s method of high-impact songwriting to your own writing. Make your articles as immediate and catchy as U2’s songs.

Here’s the 3 step method:

Write your high-impact point, the main message of your article
Make that the first sentence or paragraph
Write an even stronger point for the conclusion

So simple, yet so effective.

Plus, what’s awesome about the U2 method of high-impact writing is that it’s practical, rather than some abstract “push yourself to write better” tip
(what does that even mean?).

3 Reasons This Method Works

Here are 3 reasons why the U2 method will make your articles high-impact:

Capture a reader’s attention right away – our short attention spans need immediate hooking in, or else we quickly lose interest
Best foot forward – when you start off strong, people want to keep reading, just like a good intro riff makes you want to keep listening
More valuable article – you make it easy for the reader to get the value, and the less they have to work the more they’ll read and the more value they’ll get

Nothing Clever, Just Solid Writing

Some songwriters get caught up in trying to be clever, thinking they need to figure out some secret chord progression or song structure to make a better song.

But all it is is simply pushing yourself to make the most high-impact chorus you can, then making it what starts the song and creating an even better chorus.

The same goes for writers. If you want readers, you don’t need to be clever with some fancy structure or rhyming scheme. Just write the best darn point you’re trying to make, then make that start the article and push yourself to write an even better concluding point.

I Utilized the U2 Method for This Article

The first paragraph of this article was originally the conclusion. It stated the message and value of the article.

But I decided to utilize the U2 method and put the high-impact point in the very beginning. Now, this article starts off with (hopefully) an immediate and catchy paragraph that hooked you in to read this far.

Following the 3rd step of the U2 method, the conclusion you’ll read next is an even higher-impact point.