Write Insightfully, Not Just Descriptively
Tell your story, but make it matter to us
You’ve been through stuff. You feel things. You need to get it out, and you want people to hear you out. You’re a writer, and you write what you know.
One question: have you answered the only question that your reader really cares about?
“So what?”
I read tons of articles weekly about the things people have been through. Some of those people are fantastic writers in the sense that they can string words together in compelling, descriptive ways. Wordsmithing is an artform and some folks just know how to do it.
Many of them are missing a key ingredient though. See, writing isn’t just about arranging words into clever, head-turning phrases. Those words have to matter, and not just to the person writing them.
Let’s ask that question above in a slightly different way — a way that is more from the perspective of the reader.
“What’s in this for me?”
Here’s some hard truth about being a writer, my friends: most people aren’t reading your stuff because they want to celebrate your genius. They aren’t reading it because they care about you or your experiences.
Mostly, they will read your stuff if they can find a takeaway for their own personal journey. Also — especially around here — they might be reading you because they want to figure out how to monetize their own story.
Tell your story, but make it relevant to your audience
Yes, people who spill their drama all over the written page for you to read occasionally get famous around here. Voyeurism is still a thing, after all. There’s just one problem with committing to — let’s call it drama porn, shall we?
You will eventually run out of those kinds of stories to tell. This eventually leads to one of two inevitable outcomes: flaming out due to lack of content or embarrassing yourself with dishonest storytelling to keep your brand alive.
As writers, most of us love to talk about our favorite subject: ourselves. The obvious problem with that, though, is that most readers want to read about their favorite subject. Yep. You guessed it: themselves.
The promise in what we do, though, is that there is a way to service both.
Tell your story, fellow writers. Tell it honestly. If it’s a raw, gritty story, then don’t pull your punches. If it’s funny, make us laugh. We want to feel the emotions you went through.
Just don’t forget to bring us along on that journey. Don’t just try to wow us with the awesomeness of your successes or floor us with the depths of your despair.
As my grandma used to say, “We’re all going through something.”
Make your something matter to all of us. We don’t want to just feel your pain, Dear Writer. We want to work through our own as well.
