Writing Mistake 1: forgetting who you’re writing for
In a previous blogpost, I outlined some common mistakes writers make and forgetting who you’re writing for is top of the list. In this article I’d like to unwrap the mistake further and look at some useful prompts for writers to avoid such a pitfall. Readership is everything. If you know your audience, your writing will flow effortlessly. But who you write for is linked closely with core purpose of your writing. So as you embark on a writing project, with your big idea in your mind, you’ll need to be clear about a few things. Here are the top five questions sets you’ll need to answer before you begin:
Top Five Readership Questions Sets
1 What is the ultimate purpose of your book? What do you want it to achieve for you and your readers?
2 Who are the principle readers going to be? What are their values? How will you appeal to these values? What style of writing will appeal to this value set?
3 What do your readers need to experience as they read, to know that you are speaking their language? What are the beliefs that you hold about this big idea you have and how will you get these across both in the words you choose and the style and layout of the work?
4 How does your own experience and identity qualify you to write this particular tome? How will your readers identify with you and with your work?
5 What is it about your book that will set it apart from others? Is it unique because of the main idea, or the angle you take on an existing idea, the layout, the timing of the publication or something else?
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