Writing to Audience

Writers are often told "write to your audience." But what if you don't know who your audience is yet? What if you're just writing something that you plan to send out into the wide open world hoping that someone will find it and deem it publishable? Even if you don't have a specific market target for your writing, you can still develop a specific audience. You don't have to know which agent, publisher or editor you're going to submit to in order to write well. But you do have to know who you're writing for to write effectively. Your audience is who you're writing for. The best way to develop your sense of audience is to envision who you think will relate to what you're writing. It doesn't have to be a multitude of people. It could be just a single person. It could be someone very much like you or someone very different. It could be a real person or an imaginary person. The key is to identify the type of person with whom your particular style of writing will resonate. Once you've identified that "type," then write to that person. Focus on communicating specifically to that person, giving that person everything you think he/she expects when reading your writing - from message to voice to structure. Write as if that person is the only person in the universe that matters. Writing in this way will insure that you are writing to your audience, connecting in a meaningful way with the recipient of your message. Communication, after all, is the real reason writing exists.