Short-Form Nonfiction Week: Are You Writing To Your Audience Or At Them?

I have a friend called Bosco. When I talk to him, I say one of several things:

“Who’s the good boy?”
“Are you the good boy?”
“Yes, you are!”
“Sit.”
And “High five.”

I don’t tell Bosco about what I’m anxious about today because he wouldn’t understand it. I don’t read him poems or teach him how to do mathematics because Bosco is a dog, and his brain isn’t wired that way. He mainly just wants to hear who the good boy is. This mystery has been with him since he was born, and he’s ready for answers, now.

Welcome to short-form nonfiction. It requires you to know and acknowledge who you’re talking to. If it’s Bosco, I highly recommend, “Who’s the good boy?” If it’s a group of humans, you need to know what they actually want to read about. This marks the difference between talking to an audience and talking at one. It’s tempting to write for yourself, but somewhere along the way, you’ve got to decide if you hope to be read. Writing short-form nonfiction is a lot like talking to a friend.

Unless you’re writing for your own little echo chamber, you’ve got to know your audience. Do they want to hear your message? How much do they know already? Can you really add to their experience? How much research do you need to do to achieve that? Does your language appeal to their reading preferences?

I know this sounds an awful lot like marketing, and I suppose in a way it is. It’s just that you’re the brand. You are selling your soul. Have you ever wondered who you’re selling it to? This information will help you tailor your work to an audience.

I write on Fetlife every day. I don’t do it for clicks. I do it because I’m constantly learning how to hone my work for this audience. I’ve managed to attract a list of rather special readers. They’re people I admire and hope to reach, so their clicks tell me where I’m going right—or wrong. I’ve been doing this for an awfully long time—a decade if you want to know, but this is a long learning curve for me.

I want to be the very best one day. I want to be good enough to impress Donald Hall, not that he’ll ever read a damn thing I ever write. My followers are valuable. They’re the measuring stick I use to practice new mechanics and perfect old ones. I highly recommend it. Fetlife has thousands of exceptional and incredibly fussy readers. They have real value to a writer, but this is not today’s message.

Today, we’re talking about the difference between writing to and writing at.

I highly recommend the latter.