Your Words Unleashed Episode #49
“How to Write for Your Ideal Audience”
Hello writers!
I’m recording this over the Lunar New Year holiday, so happy year of the Dragon to all who celebrate!
It’s yet another good time to reflect on how things are going in your life and what you might want to tweak to align more with your own values and priorities.
As for me, I’ve decided to make some big changes health-wise.
I’m in my mid-40s when taking care of yourself really starts to make a difference.
So I’m committing to exercising more and creating healthier eating habits.
I’ve noticed that having a young child in the house brings a bunch of snacks into close proximity that I wouldn’t otherwise choose to buy, let alone eat.
And of course I eat them!
My goal is to feel better and have more energy by being more intentional about my diet and health this year.
So what do you want to be more intentional about?
Today I want to revisit something I first talked about in one of the earliest episodes of this podcast, which was about developing your own distinct voice and writing style.
It was such an early episode that I know a lot of people missed it completely.
And I realize I probably should have titled it something different, because ultimately your voice is determined by the audience you are writing for.
So if you don’t know who this audience is, or if the default audience is Reviewer #2, as I’ll talk about more, then it completely shows through in your writing.
In this episode, I’m going to share with you a simple set of questions you can use to figure out who your ideal reader is so that your own unique voice can shine through.
You can find the full transcript for this episode at YourWordsUnleashed.com/49.
Why You Need to Write for Your Ideal Audience
So who is your ideal reader? It’s a tricky question for academics.
Now that I’ve been a book coach for some time, I can tell you that the vast majority of authors never stop to think about who they are actually writing the book for.
And because they don’t stop to consider this, then their default audience is always an expert authority figure.
This could be their advisor, another expert in their field, or a potential reviewer whose role is to pick apart everything they’re saying.
This is how you have to write your dissertation.
This is also how you generally have to write articles.
So naturally, people inadvertently assume that this is the primary audience for their book.
Writing for experts makes things so much harder on a number of levels because you are typically writing from a place of fear and defensiveness.
One common negative consequence is that people tend to overprepare, read too much, take too many notes, and totally second-guess themselves.
As a result, the writing gets pushed off for months on end as they wait to feel more confident that they’re ready to write (and honestly, since this is your inner critic talking, this moment may never come).
A second problem is that the writing itself tends to come off as very stilted and constrained.
You don’t sound like yourself, because you’re not feeling free enough to be yourself!
I have a friend who had a really difficult time writing her first book.
I’ll never forget that after she sent a chapter to one of her mentors to read, one of the main lines of feedback was, “it feels like you are writing with a tourniquet on.”
Basically, she was so afraid of being critiqued that her writing came off as totally constricted.
It makes perfect sense that you would write from a defensive place.
Everyone has received an unfairly harsh, negative and potentially personalized advisor feedback or anonymous review at some point in their careers.
It’s demoralizing, and that sting stays with you!
Or, when it comes to articles, even if the reviews are generally positive, it can still be really hard.
I’ve found that the higher tier the journal, the more reviewers will ask of you.
When I was a postdoc, I submitted an article to a top journal in one of my subfields that had a low acceptance rate.
I was thrilled to receive four pretty good reviews and an R&R.
But they asked me to do so many complex and intricate revisions that I was filled with anxiety for months that I would fail.
And at that point in my career, so much felt like it was on the line.
Eventually I was able to make all the suggested revisions and get it published, but damn, that was hard work!
By contrast, neither of my books ever received such detailed scrutiny from reviewers.
With books, the gatekeeping doesn’t seem to be as high.
I think this is because so many fewer people actually attempt to write them.
Both of my books were sent out to only two reviewers apiece, and they judged the book as a whole.
For my first book, each of the reviews of the entire full manuscript was shorter than just one review for my aforementioned 30-page-long article!
One of my friends once said she believed that getting a book published with a top-tier press was actually easier than publishing an article in a top-tier journal.
From my experience, I’d have to agree with her.
So what does this mean for how you write?
A book affords you a very unique opportunity to play around and experiment with how you sound and how you present your ideas.
But it’s about being intentional in knowing who you actually WANT to be writing for, and then doing your best to fulfill your reader’s needs.
Find Your Ideal Reader
So if the ideal reader is NOT a critical reviewer, who is it?
They are an interested, supportive person who YOU would want to read the book and be transformed by it in some way.
Someone who you know would also love to read your book.
The exercise I’m about to share with you I have actually shared before in other episodes.
But it’s so important that it’s worth repeating to fix a disconnect between the person in front of me who has fascinating, often groundbreaking, ideas to share and what ends up on the page.
Most authors say that their goal is to write an accessible book for a mainstream audience, one that anyone could pick up in a bookstore and get something out of.
These scholars are truly excited by the potential impact their book can have on the way people think about a topic they really care about.
But then they share their writing with me, and the prose is dry and lifeless.
Not only that, but it’s also often filled with specialized jargon that no regular person would be able to understand without a dictionary and an intro class in your discipline.
As a reader, I can’t find their unique voice.
It’s like the author literally disappears by hiding behind other people’s ideas rather than allowing themselves to be seen.
As I’ve already talked about, this is totally natural based on our earlier experiences in the academy and the way we tend to be harshly (and often anonymously) evaluated.
But one thing I’d like to ask you is: When you write for your critics, how does this impact how you write?
And how does this impact how you feel as you write?
People have said things like “self-defensive,” “perfectionistic,” “insecure,” and “citing too much.”
Sound familiar? It’s neither fun nor easy to write if you’re feeling defensive.
Essentially, you are covering yourself with invisible armor even before you sit down to work.
Think about this is a literal way, if you are covered from head to toe in steel armor, how much can you actually see?
Not much at all. Your perspective is very narrow and focused just on avoiding your enemy.
When you’re trying to protect yourself from attack, how much can you move? Again, not much at all.
So when it comes to writing, how free do you feel to express yourself openly and authentically?
Probably not much.
Now, imagine how you would feel if you were writing for your biggest fan, for someone who supports you and is captivated by your ideas.
I’ve received answers to this including, “joyful,” “liberated,” “enthusiastic,” “playful,” and “bold.”
So let me give you an example.
One of my recent coaching clients is an already published author and full professor.
They are working on a project that’s meant to crossover to a mainstream audience.
But it’s been taking them years and years because they’ve been unconsciously envisioning their reader as Reviewer 2.
Yet they didn’t realize they were doing this until we did this exercise together.
This person has reached the top of the academic hierarchy and doesn’t need this book for any professional reason.
But they’ve been held back by an internalized, punitive voice of the academy that doesn’t at all match the readership of this new book.
I asked them to send me an introduction to a chapter that had taken months and months and months to write.
They were very anxious about letting me see it.
Keep in mind that I know nothing about their topic.
But, they were worried because they didn’t feel like it included all of the necessary research on the topic.
Upon reading it, I said to my client, “But how would I know any different? I am a likely reader of your book, but I’m not an expert in your field.
I already consider YOU to be the expert here, and I’m just looking to you to teach me some things about this topic.
I don’t need to know everything.”
And this caused my client to stop in their tracks and see how deeply they had internalized the harsh voice of reviewers.
So, instead, I asked this person to consider their book as a generous conversation with someone they care about.
It’s an invitation to engage with new ideas together.
Obviously, you know more about this topic than they do.
But your role is not to lord this over them or talk AT them.
Instead, you want your book to be like meeting them at the door and showing them around the most interesting parts of your house (or museum or whatever metaphor works well for you.)
So, I asked my client, “who do you ideally want to be having this conversation with, and why?”
And it turned out that they wanted to write this book for their 18-year-old self.
They wanted to help them feel seen and to better understand their own rich history, which has been devalued by mainstream society.
Writing to HELP their younger self has now become pivotal to this person’s process.
I’m happy to report that they’ve been gaining a lot of momentum with their writing.
All of this to say is that having a friendly, specific person in mind when you’re writing can make the process much smoother, more enjoyable, and even more meaningful.
It can help you determine your tone and wording and figure out what information needs to be included and what doesn’t.
So let’s move into the exercise I mentioned earlier.
You might want to grab a paper and pen and pause this recording after each of the questions so you can write for a few minutes.
Here are the instructions:
Think of one real-life person you really want to read your book and be transformed by it in some way.
This could be your mom, one of your students, or even yourself when you were 18.
But this person is not an expert in your field or a potential reviewer.
Don’t think too hard. Just choose the first person who pops into your mind that feels right for you for any reason.
Now answer these questions:
What does this person care about, and why?
What kind of life have they lived?
Why are they interested in reading your book?
How do you want your book to affect this person?
How would you like them to feel as they’re reading it?
And, if they could only remember one main point from your book, what would it be?
Now take a look at your answers. How does this make you feel about writing your book?
What might you change about your approach?
When you’re writing, keep this person in mind and constantly ask yourself if they would understand what you’re writing about.
Do they need more—or possibly less—information to make sense of things?
Are you being a generous host and meeting your reader’s needs?
Summing Everything Up
So let’s sum it all up.
Keeping your ideal reader’s experience front and center is key to finding your authentic voice.
Even though book writing can be so solitary, never forget that your book is a generous conversation with your reader.
It’s an invitation to enter a new world that could change their life.
This ideal reader supports you and wants to experience a connection with you through the stories you have to tell.
And they can only do so if you’re willing to show more of who you are in your writing.
Here’s a mantra you can play with this week before you write: “I’m willing to take off my armor!” or “It’s okay to take off my armor.”
Really experiment with viewing your book as a supportive space where you can be open with how you express yourself.
Experts in your field will read your book regardless (and will definitely critique it, let’s be real), so write for the people you WANT to read your book and have their minds blown by it.
The choice is indeed yours.
Take care, I’ll talk to you again soon!