How to Write Remarkable Articles in Ali Abdaal’s Voice

Spoiler alert: you might find some metalanguage here (and some in-parenthesis humour as well).

A week ago, I was browsing YouTube when I just came across a post from my favourite study/productivity/entrepreneurial guru saying “Hey friends, I’m hiring!”. I got very excited. However, as a non-UK resident and a non-English native speaker, I’d have to work twice as hard to prove I’m the best fit for the job.

On the offer page, it was clear that Ali was looking for someone who could write in his voice, so I decided to take this challenge really seriously. And what better way to prove I can ghostwrite Ali than ghostwriting him through an article on how to do that? So here it goes, six tips on How to Write Remarkable Articles in Ali Abdaal’s Voice.

(Dear reader, please don’t steal these tips to beat me in this race. Thank you.)

1. Even if you’re a doctor, don’t sound like one.

There is a discernible difference between what you think you can offer to your audience and what it wants or needs. You should surely focus on the latter. If you start boasting academic lexicon on people who just want to learn how to be a little more productive, they will get bored (or vomit).

Instead, use proper English, but always in a casual, friendly, and joyful tone. Contracted forms are totally fine, and if you learn some cheeky UK English specificities, that’s even better.

2. Choose the right title.

There is a common belief between digital marketers that says “8 out of 10 people will read your headline, but only 2 out of 10 will read your text’s body.” Although I couldn’t find an actual scientific paper on that, I have no doubt that the title is one of the most critical aspects of an article. Even more so, if the article is published online, where there is a monstrous competition for the reader’s attention. Most of the time, writing an outstanding title is your only to chance to win this war.

There are a bunch of strategies that you can use to create exceptional headlines. One that might seem way too simple, but that works quite well is to create “How to…” titles. Ali likes that a lot, I’ve found many different articles using this structure on his website. If you want to sound like him, that’s a right, simple way to start. (Have you checked the title of the article you’re reading, by the way?)

Title length is also decisive. If you create an enormous, wordy title, you readers will get tired even before reading the article’s first word. On the other hand, if you create a tiny one, you’re losing the unique opportunity to convince that person your content is relevant, exciting or, even better, life-changing.

According to Coschedule Headline Analyzer, “Headlines with around six words tend to earn the highest number of click-throughs.” In this context, the 11 articles I’ve studied from aliabdaal.com did pretty well. They averaged 6.55 title words. (But there is a catch related to the standard deviation. If you like nerdy stuff, click here to check the complete research.) It’s important, though, to understand that you don’t need to look for a specific number of words. Instead, focus on creating a remarkable title with a reasonable length; not too short, not too long.

3. Be concise.

From my research, I’ve discovered that, on average, 55.55% of Ali’s paragraphs contain only one or two sentences (like this one). If you also consider three-sentence paragraphs, this number rises to 76.22%.

Wordy texts are incredibly tedious. Please do your best to avoid them.

Another suggestion to increase your reader’s attention and retention is to mix up paragraphs and sections of different sizes. Did you notice how I’ve been doing that through this text? Between the first paragraph of this section (35 words) and this one (76 words), I’ve inserted a very concise and direct one composed of only 13 words. I’ve also done that with the macrostructure. Section 2 is notably longer than both the first and the third one.

4. Write more than just a few words.

If you read enough of Ali’s materials, you’ll notice that his articles fit into two categories lengthwise, long and short ones. In my research, the long ones varied from 1239 to 2105 words, but 71.43% of them were precisely between 1400 and 1600 words. The overall mean for the long articles was 1555 words. On the other hand, the short ones varied from 354 to 642, with an average of 516.25 words.

I can give three reasons why you should choose long articles when applying for Ali’s ghostwriter and content creator position.

Firstly, according to my research, most of his articles (63.64%) fit into this category. If you want to sound like him, write like him. Furthermore, on the job offer page, Ali himself mentioned that you should be able to write “high-quality long-form educational content”. How could you ever prove that if you can’t exceed a thousand words?

Secondly, see that as an opportunity. If you’re indeed the best candidate for the position, you should seize every possible chance to show your work quality. When there are hundreds of applicants, every minute of attention you get is worth its weight in gold. (A four-hundred-word text will give you about five and half minutes of the judge’s attention.)

Lastly, one of the main challenges you’ll face as his ghostwriter is to “convert” his YouTube videos into blog articles. To do that, you should always have a long piece in mind. 100% of his video-related articles I’ve studied were long ones.

(Note here that converting is very different from transcribing. Videos and articles have distinct objectives and are aimed at specific audiences; therefore, they require different formatting. Understanding this is essential to delivering outstanding work.)

In summary, if you’re applying for this job (please don’t be), try to write articles around 1500 words. That doesn’t mean you should get crazy about that, though. It’s better to write a thousand-word incredible text than a fifteen-hundred-word nonsense article.

5. Have a well-defined structure.

That’s advice for life, not just for the job. Having a precise, explicit structure is key to writing high-level, non-fiction text. It helps the author better organise his/her thoughts and the reader to understand them better. Besides, a well-defined structure also increases retention for the following two reasons:

1. It reduces reading friction (it’s easier to read five three-sentence paragraphs than a fifteen-sentence one).
2. Increases curiosity (if you want to learn how to write in Ali’s voice, you’ll want to check all six tips, not just one).

One type of structure I’ve noticed Ali likes consists of using numbered lists. You might use this artifice either for the macrostructure (like I’ve done in this article) or inside paragraphs (microstructure). There are a couple of things you should have in mind when building your lists:

1. Don’t create too many lists (unless, of course, you’re my competitor and want to lose). A different list in every paragraph you write is the perfect way to get the reader exhausted.
2. Don’t create excessively large lists. They’re not “the best tips ever” if you’ve listed 78 of them. Save us time.

6. Consume Ali’s content and produce yours.

No guide like this will ever teach you how to ghostwrite someone better than immersing yourself in his/her content. If you want to sound like Ali, you’ve got to read his articles (many of them!) and watch his videos. But that’s not all; you should do that with the proper mindset.

Firstly, always pay attention to how he organises his thoughts and presents his ideas both on paper (keyboard, I mean) and on camera. Then, be aware of tiny little details that make all the difference, like how he uses idioms, slangs, and jokes. And last, but not least: practice, practice, practice. You’ll never be the perfect ghostwriter if you don’t try to be one.

…

If you carefully follow these six simple (yet challenging) steps, you’ll hopefully be ready to write remarkable texts in Ali Abdaal’s voice. Even if you don’t, you’ll be much more prepared to write your own fascinating articles, and — who knows — get to the point where you will be the one looking for a ghostwriter.

By the way, this article ended up with 1404 words. 1406 now.

Rúver Herculano.