Who Are You Writing For?

It’s easy to forget your target audience and motivation while writing. It’s even easier to start writing without an idea of who you want to reach and why. We all have done this at one point or another. When we lose sight of our motivation for a project, the draft dies in a few days and nothing can resuscitate it. That is why it is so important to reevaluate why you write often.

So why are you writing? It doesn’t matter what you write - creative fiction, non-fiction, Christian fiction, secular fiction, and more. If you are a writer, this post is for you. Do you write for the money or so people will know your name? Do you write for ministry? For fun and pleasure?

I write because God called me to. I write because I love it and I’m passionate about it.  These reasons come first for me.

What’s also important is that we write for others. Write to share your love with them and because you have compassion for them. Don’t trick them with literary gimmicks or try to force a theme that just isn’t working for the story. Write to shed light on the human condition.

Readers look for specific things when they crack open a book. Readers aren’t looking for lazy writing. They are looking for honesty. They want to know ways to experience and deal with life through your character’s eyes - things they would not have picked up on without reading your book. They want to remember the marrow of life that was lost long ago when the Age of Distractions began. Readers want to feel something when they read your books. Let them.

Do this by discovering while you write. Write from the heart of deep, disturbing, human questions. Answer them or chew on them. Get your readers thinking. Tell them something they’ve never thought of before.

Be unique in your descriptions. Note the different ways you see things and write that down. People aren’t looking for symbolism or novel-wide themes in your books no matter what English professors teach you. They are looking for valid truths woven into the heart of a powerful story with powerful questions.

It is invaluable to comfort others. We can do this with our words. We can do this through honesty and details and characters. We can do this through hard work and reevaluation.

Reevaluate why you write. Do you write so you can get published? So you can check something off your to-do list? When I don’t feel like re-evaluating, this is the dangerous motive I fall into.

I ask you to write for others because God has called you to. Make them feel loved with your books. Put them through Hell - then be the guiding hand that leads them out again. That’s what readers want. A good story. Not plot formulas and character biographies and outlines. They want the truth. Reevaluate so you are prepared enough to give it to them.

Why do you write? Tell me in the comments below!