How to Write Great Fiction — Tip 12
Your best target audience may not be who you think
How many times have you heard that you need to know who your audience is and that you need to write for that group or narrow it down to one person you know and write for them?
I’m certainly not disputing that tried and true advice because it works. But I do differ when it comes to writing fiction.
When marketing fiction we certainly do need to identify the general and specific audience for our book. That’s easily done once the book is completed.
However, when we're in the actual trenches of our writing process, there is only one audience that counts. In fact, that audience consists of one person — OURSELVES.
As the story unfolds, we’re the only relevant audience. If we can’t engage our own emotions, interests, desires, curiosity, and attention up to the end of the story, how do we expect to do that for anyone else?
In my opinion, great fiction is a story we’re passionate about. It’s a story we can’t stop writing because we have to know how it ends. We have to save our protagonists from whatever conflict is facing them. We transfuse them with our own life energy to rise above and conquer the villain, whatever or whoever it may be.
