The Audience is Key

Read my draft out loud? To an audience?! But it isn’t perfect. There are mistakes. It isn’t done!

I have always been one of those writers who is much happier being locked away in my room, fixing my pieces until I feel that they are good enough for a second opinion. Jane Smiley, though, found it truly beneficial to include another person in her creative process.

http://www.hazelfoster.com/2011/06/30/the-search-jane-smiley/

In ‘The Muse: The Listener Also Instructs,’ Smiley discusses how writing with a particular audience in mind helped her to distinguish what was funny, what needed clarification, and what needed to be scrapped all together. By writing for her husband, and knowing that she would be reading her drafts to him, Smiley could distinguish what her audience needed and wanted during her creative process, rather than just waiting for feedback to then change the tone or storyline.

At first I thought this advice would benefit me the most in my personal writing. I know that sharing your work with a ‘safe’ audience is smart, and it certainly helps to notice any holes in the plot or areas that need clarification. But this idea of writing for a very small, particular audience and then taking their feedback into consideration can be translated into social media as well.

When using social media you need to define your target audience and then appeal to their needs. Much like how Smiley considered her husbands reactions while writing her stories, marketers need to consider their audience’s reactions in advance.

Is this post relevant to my audience? Will they read the whole thing? Is this information relevant to my brand? These are all questions that need to be answered before posting on social media—especially since once the post is out there, it can’t be taken back.

I really enjoyed reading Smiley’s thoughts on the writing process; both for my personal works, as well as in regards to communicating with new technology. I think we can learn something from everyone’s process, but keeping the audience’s needs as the driving factor behind mass communication is an idea that everyone in the field of communication should constantly remind themselves.