Lesson 14 – Knowing Your Writing Direction is Better than Writing Blind

The long story short: Having clear goals for your writing will help you focus on what’s really important.

The short story long: Not all writers are alike.

Sounds obvious, doesn’t it? After all, horror writers like myself write completely differently than cozy romance writers. Our audiences are different, our descriptions are different, and our stories are completely different. But what about other types of writers?

We all write for different reasons. Some writers want to make a living from writing while others write only for themselves or a small group of friends and family. In each case, the author writes for an audience (even if it is an audience of one), but the goals of each author are completely different.

My own experience

A few years ago, I found a small book with a plastic comb binding. It was definitely a personal project. Its title read, “A Hamlin Family History”, and its long genealogies related only to the members of the Hamlin family. (The fact that I found this book at a rummage sale made me rather sad.) Another time, I discovered a cheaply-printed history book in a small general store. This book told the story of a woman who lived deep in the Appalachian mountains during the Great Depression. Unlike the Hamlin family book, this one spent very little time explaining who was related to whom. Instead, it told entertaining (and oftentimes shocking) stories about life in a one-room cabin in the mountains during the 1930’s.

Both of these books were written for a specific audience and had specific purposes. The Hamlin story was only meant for members of that family. Other readers would have found it cumbersome and dull. The Appalachian book, however, had been written for a broader audience and was meant to make money as well as tell a story.

What does this mean for you?

Two of the first things you should ask yourself upon starting a project is, who is going to read this and why will they read it? Maybe you want your collection of poems to remain private. In that case, you are writing for you and you don’t have to worry about a broader audience. On the other hand, if you are writing a 300k fantasy novel, you should get to know your audience, other books in your genre, and the relevant tropes before you set pen to paper.

I recommend doing your legwork up front. This will guide your story in the right direction. Keeping your audience in mind helps authors navigate their story’s journey from page one to ‘the end’.

 

 

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