A writer’s Dilemma
What’s in a Niche?
What would you call a writer who’d write about Travel today, Astronomy tomorrow and take on Health and Wellness the next chance he gets? Would that be one lacking of focus or could we credit him on diversity grounds?
And if diversity is king on one front, should it be frowned upon on another?
Curve your own writing niche, they say. Experiment with everything in your humble neophyte stages but definitely thin it out to a specific niche.
Pick amongst your interests what your readers respond to most. Something that brings in better returns, preferably. Don't be the generalist that goes around trying to be a jack of all trades, amigo. You shall be a master of none.
We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master- Ernest Hemingway.
What's your Niche?
You see, if you randomly asked me to tell you about my writing interests and waited long enough, it would be a long ride.
I’d drive you down the streams of Poetry, up hill to Travel and Adventures, across the bridges of History and Ecommerce, before taking you further up to the Everests of Astronomy. Even then, I will have skipped my interests and qualifications in Psychology and… Well, you’ve heard enough.
My Challenge.
I'm then asked to pick a niche and run with it consistently. It’s more professional to specialize, I'm told. And maybe I should.
It does seem to have all the earmarks of something ‘Writing 101’ would list under the ‘How to scale up as a writer’ talking point. But can I, for the likes of me, focus on honing my writing skills while also reading on a wide scale to qualify my writing on a wider range?
Yes?
Perhaps this is just a part of the process. The teenage years of a writer. The ones where you’re somehow lost and still trying to find yourself. The ones where everything seems so reachable and doable before the realities of the dos and don’ts of the world come in uninvited and take over the wheels of your heterogeneity.
Conclusion.
Tout ensemble, there may be a need to niche down our mini-strengths to the one major strength for specialization's sake. But maybe, like Guinness, we’re made of more and it would be just as fine to embrace that wholeness.
I find that it’s more necessary for some to niche it down than others as our motives and motivations to write vary and so do our ultimate goals. How we view the means to our envisioned rewards depends on where we stand on the niche conversation.
Even so, it’s hard to see how either can hurt if quality and value are not watered down.
We'll learn as we go.
Thanks for reading!
Always a pleasure having you here.
Hey Esther Uwanah Edet, here's to keeping my word!
