The brick.

It’s a literary term that I’ve stolen for my own selfish purposes, and you’ve just seen it in action.  It’s a short, punchy statement at the beginning of an article that’s designed to get people’s attention.

It takes its name from the old comic strip, Krazy Kat, in which the titular cat is pursued by a mouse that finds himself in love with her, and to get her attention, he frequently throws bricks at her face.

Basically, any statement that makes people do a double take, forces people to look twice, or elicits an involuntary cry involving the words “what the” qualifies as a brick.

Naturally, you don’t have a third eye in your forehead.  If you had sufficient powers over space and time to know what would make people pay attention in advance, chances are you wouldn’t be blogging.  No, you’d be engaging in mind control over supermodels or entire cheerleading squads.  But anyway–what you CAN do is put in something that makes YOU have that reaction and then hope it carries over.

Give that a shot next time you’re blogging.  Start your blog with a statement that comes out of nowhere.  Maybe “the sun is likely to burn out next week” or “have you ever tried inserting raw squid into your ear canal” or even “have you ever seen a television with a picture so clear you can reach in and pull something out”.  Make sure it’s related to your blog, however–don’t just spew nonsense for its own sake, but say something unexpected that relates to what you’re about to blog about.

Throw a few bricks around, and see what happens when they hit your audience.

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