How to write like a Super Villain

For a studio that focuses on “Visuals and Stories,” the blog format often needs to mirror the art.

The writing is not wrong, it lacks a grabbing hooks. I start at the beginning, instead of, at the most exciting part of the story. Duh! If someone opens my email, the only guarantee I have is that they’ll read the first sentence. So hook them!

To fix this, I looked at a previous post on Prohibition.

“It must be noted that though we have achieved the Large Hadron Collider, the moon landing, and the Kardashians, on the topic of prohibition we are still divided. You see, at the start of the dream that was India, Mahatma Gandhi strongly opposed the consumption of alcohol, viewing it as an evil that caused social and personal ruin.”

Verdict: Snooze fest. This reads like a history textbook.

“In 1990, the women of Dubagunta, a small village in Andhra Pradesh, declared war. They began an anti-arrack agitation using a plethora of tactics to pressurise men to stop drinking. They physically restrained habitual drinkers, attacked liquor shops, fought with the police and liquor mafia, and prevented the entry of liquor into their villages. In the agitation, women were beaten by henchmen and the police; reports stated many women activists were raped and murdered.”

Verdict: You are listening now. That is a story.

But the most interesting aspect of the blog is somewhere in the middle.

The blogs have a distinct, introspective, honest and shameless voice. “Studio F/ARTs” post feels like a personal letters, which is great for building a loyal audience. But loyalty comes from consistency not creating confusion.

The Gap:
The blogs require high effort from a new reader. The January update jumps from internet history -> philosophy of inconsistency -> specific project updates -> woodblock print techniques. A new visitor will get lost before they find anything valueable.

Instead of walls of text, successful blogs use “text-image-text” rhythm. Every 150 words is broken by a sketch, a pull-quote in a large font, or a custom divider. Something to break the monotony. For example Infographic Essays. on complex topics (like the gut microbiome research) are often summarised in a hand-drawn diagram or flow chart rather than just described in paragraphs. And not like charles dickens! Though, even he had illustrations.

“The Intoxicated Gut” and “Futures Beyond Prohibition” are intellectually rich with some serious research going on. But…

The Gap
“The Intoxicated Gut” is a wall of text. I am an artist, yet my posts rely entirely on complex biological descriptions ‘in text’. A reader has to work hard to visualise the “leaky gut” or the “tight junctions acting like a drawstring.” The “creative research” is evident in the text but missing from the visual presentation.

Instead of writing “Futures Beyond Prohibition,” about the future I could have written it from the future.

Besides that, there are some shining ideas of brilliance like the “sober festivals” or “digital excise stamps” for which I could have created fake “artifacts.” May be a “Ticket to the 2035 Bihar Sobriety Festival” or a “Digital Ration Card for Alcohol” that sits right at the very top of the blog.

The Gap
These ideas are buried in the middle of the text. The headline and intro feel like standard essays. The “What If” scenarios should be the stars of the show, potentially visualised or highlighted as “Design Concepts.”

What if I invited the reader to play a game by ending posts with a “Prompt of the Week” or a poll. Example, “If you had to design a festival for sobriety, what would be the main ritual? Reply in comments.” This is a clear CTA which would be helpful for social posts (More on that next time).

“Inconsistency is consistency,” is a very relatable and human angle.

The Gap
There aren’t enough WIP comparisons, like the “Drinks” illustration or “Sunanda & Sadananda” rewrite posts.

Readers love the final art, but they obsess over the process. Successful artist blogs don’t just show the result; they deconstruct the struggle. Share the “ugly sketches” and the “research rabbit holes”. If they would have been researching “alcohol prohibition,” they would post photos of the actual archives, the highlighted books, or the “mind map” mess on their wall. This turns a static blog post into a detective story.

This is a bit extra-extra, but some advice also suggested embedding an audio player where the author reads the story or adds a “soundscape” (background ambient noise) that matches the mood of the writing. It sounds really interesting. But that’s another layer of work.

—

But those are some insights from the garden of learning to improve these walls of text, the irony is that I haven’t added visuals to this post either. Haha, jokes on me 🙂