How Do You Write for Everyone?
How easy it is to get overwhelmed when I think of how individual each reader is. How can I possibly meet what they expect, when each of them comes with a different goal, a different history, and a different mind set?
Whatever the subject I choose to write on, I can be sure that some readers will know it far better than I do and some will have never encountered it before. How do I bridge gap to write a piece that meets learners on solid ground while engaging readers with significant expertise? These writing questions are central for anyone who writes for an audience of more than two people they already know.
How do I answer these questions for myself and for others?
I give them the answer Big Roy discovered.
That Curious, Complex, Intelligent Individual
Blogging is conversation — an exchange of ideas. Conversation often happens between people who have different backgrounds, unique experiences, and unequal expertise. What makes conversation work well is the respect the speaker-writer shows in relating to an audience.
Big Roy discovered his answer to this problem. It’s in his comment on September 5..
When I started to realize that it really didnââ¬â¢t matter how many people read my blog. I really needed to write it as if one person was reading it. That one person being the most important reader in the world because he was reading my blog.
So how does a writer do that? Here are a few ways.
- Provide information that is complete without assuming things on the part of the audience. Learners and experts both like to start a conversation from a solid place.
- Use a voice that shows you understand that intelligent people might have incomplete knowledge for legitimate and natural reasons. Don’t let your internal editor say that readers will think Hey I already know this. Don’t call me stupid. Not every person would have occasion to come into contact with the information you’re sharing. There is no reason why they should have. Not providing information is more likely to make them uncomfortable.
- Make a prototype sketch of your one most important reader. Choose someone much like yourself who is curious, clever, and intelligent, but keep the difference that this person doesn’t know the subject you write about. Imagine that person. Give that person a name. Picture him or her living behind your computer screen.
- When you read your posts over before you publish, read as if you are your one most important reader. Ask yourself questions that reader would ask. Make observations that reader would make.
The reason we only need one clearly defined reader is that part of learning to read is learning how to make meaning from what we need. If we write with consistency to our one reader, our audience of curious, clever, intelligent individuals can extrapolate to find what you’re saying to them.
I write with one important reader as my guide.That reader sees to it that my posts are strong, clear, and logical so readers can follow where I go. Who is that one important reader I write to?
Why it’s you, of course. Who did you think it was?
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Check out the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.
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I had a feeling that I was the one you were writing for. It’s a good thing so many folks share my interests 🙂
When I first started my blog, my plan was to write for that prototypical person ââ¬â a composite of all the people who I talk to about working from home and doing what they love. It’s worked out well for me, based on the feedback I’ve gotten.
IMHO ââ¬â if you define your niche well, and really know who your readers are, writing “just for them” is much easier.
Hi Tony!
I’m so easy to see through. Gosh you caught me out, didn’t you? 🙂
Comments and feedback sure help a lot in getting to know who that one important reader is and what interests that reader has.
You write for me too, don’t you? 🙂
You bet! That way we’ll always know we’ll have at least 2 readers (you and me 🙂 )
Well, Tony, actually, I’ll have two, but not the two you think — you and my proofreader.
Everyone knows I can’t possibly read my own stuff. Or I would have mistakes in my titles. 🙂
But you’ll have 2.5, because I’ll be reading you twice. 🙂
Hey Liz,
I’ve found writing for one person helps in this sense also. No matter how many people end up coming to your site. If you stick to writing for that one person everything seems to fall in place as it should. You don’t end up trying to write for everyone and please everyone.
Well said, Big Roy. It IS a great foil for the temptation to write for approval. 🙂
When I write a post, I write as if I were reading it, I consider myself atleast of average intelligence, and so the words and way I write should be understandable by the majority of readers, or atleast I hope so!
TechZ, You make an excellent One Most Important Reader. I bet you’re great at challenging your own work to see whether it has any open spaces or phrases that are hard to understand. 🙂
Since my blog is on teaching and classroom management, I try to think about what I wish someone had told me when I first started teaching 25 years ago (when I was ten!!).
Delaney,
How amazing1 You started teaching when you were ten too? We have something really special in common. 🙂
It’s a gift that you can remember. The fact that you started teaching so early is help there. I know that it certainly helps me.
No wonder you know how to do what you do so well and with such fluency. :
Hi Liz, Hi Everybody!
I loved your birthday party. I met some nice people and discovered some interesting blogs.
I thought I’d get in early. I have class tonight at Stanford — taking a course on “Cultural Geography” — that’s fascinating. 5 weeks on world religions and 5 weeks on languages of the world.
Last time you asked me for a post. Tonight I’ll recommend my current one.
It’s on “Breastfeeding Icons” and it allows your readers to engage their creativity and be a design judge. Go to:
http://blog.creativethink.com/weblog/2006/10/breastfeeding_i.html
Best wishes,
Roger von Oech
I agree with TechZ that I try to “talk” to someone of my intelligence (or lack thereof), someone who is supposedly an average Joe or Jane when I’m writing, so that I’m actually thinking or “talking” when I’m writing and just typing what’s in my head onto computer screen.
So, for me, it’s the only way I write and it’s all I know. I do try to explain ideas and terms in a way I hope will be easy for someone to understand.
Great post on focusing on how you should write for your audience.
Hi May C
Welcome!
I think that your strategy is a strong and tested one. Keeping your eye on trying to be sure that what you’re saying makes sense to someone like you is a great way to listen like a reader!
I appreciate what you said about the post. Caring out the audience means a lot to me.