If You Don’t Understand You Have a Reader, Keep It In Your Journal.
Build your reader-writer relationship with these 10 questions.
The reader-writer relationship is one I honour to my core.
Without you, I am nothing more than a self-involved journal sharer. I am nothing more than an egotistical maniac. I am nothing.
Without you reading these words, I don’t exist.
Dramatic?
A little. But true nonetheless.
It is the way I view this relationship that helps me create things worth reading. And it helps me enjoy it while doing it.
Why? Because in this one thought experiment, it is not about me at all.
Let me repeat.
It is not about me at all.
It is about you. Because you’re my reader and we’re having a conversation.
To be a successful writer, understand that you’re in a relationship with your reader.
If you forget this, your writing will be self-absorbed and poorly applicable to someone else.
And if that’s the case, why share it publicly? The internet is a busy enough place as it is.
It can be hard as a new writer to know who is reading your work. Maybe no one has. Yet.
What I find: once you start publishing, your reader is likely to show themselves.
They’ll comment, DM you, or reach out. It might be your best friend, or you aunt, or your friend from high school you thought forgot about you.
Once I started writing, unexpected people reached out to tell me my writing impacted them. Over the years, I’ve met more readers and gotten to know them personally. I now use Natasha as my reader, and she’s a real person.
What I know about you, my reader is this:
- You are endlessly curious
- You are looking for insights and answers
- You are looking to feel comforted in their concerns
- You are looking for someone real, raw, honest and unafraid of the scary topics
In case you’re feeling stuck, use these 10 questions to help you brainstorm and learn about your reader.
Your writing will improve after answering these questions. Because these questions bring empathy into the equation.
Without empathy, the conversation between you and your reader is likely to go stale.
Empathy keeps this relationship alive. ;)
10 Questions to Help Develop Your Relationship With Your Reader:
- Who have you been writing to already? What characteristics have you imagined in your reader?
- Looking at those characteristics, does anyone in your real life embody those attributes, have you been already writing to someone real?
- Write down everything you know about that person’s life, lifestyle, job, daily habits, relationships, etc.
- In what ways are you similar to this person?
- In what ways are you different from this person?
- What does this person need from you? What do they want?
- What are their deepest fears?
- What are their dreams?
- What are they afraid to say?
- How will your writing support them?
Whenever you get stuck with what to write about, and you’re ready to leave the confines of the egotistical, heady space that us writers can get into, ask yourself the following:
“What does Natasha need to hear from me today?”
“What is keeping Natasha up at night?”
“If I were Natasha, would I click on this title?”
It will do you a world of good to think of your reader just as often as you think of yourself.
And if your writing is just about you, spare the Internet of your woes, and keep it in your journal.
