Tip #4: How Important Is Research?

Dawn Wilson, Servant Writer and professional researcher, has this piece of advice:

“If writing does not include the depth and accuracy of research, it can become shallow and sloppy. I take notes about everything that interests me, and on just about anything (file cards in my purse, restaurant napkins, the backs of receipts, church bulletins). Read more

Writing for an Audience

This article is the first installment on a series of tips I will offer to help you understand how to write for an audience.  My goal is to provide bite-sized pieces you can ponder and begin to put into practice right away.

It may seem self-evident, but writing for an audience requires that we, writers, understand the readers that will potentially read our words. Magazine editors, for instance, have a precise knowledge of the publication’s reading demographic — they expect freelance writers to study the publication, understand its style – and their target audience. 

Let’s say, for example, you want to write for Christianity Today.  Do you know who reads it? Would you guess that the majority of its readership is made of married men in their mid-50s?  MomSense, on the other hand, caters to mothers of preschoolers (infants through kindergarten).   Of course, there are publications that reach a wider demographic.  Take Reader’s Digest, for example.  It aims to provoke, educate, and entertain readers from all walks of life through articles and features illustrating contemporary American life. Still, Reader’s Digest editors understand that they cater to readers who prefer excerpted features over the meatier versions published in, say, Time Magazine.  

“The child as reader is neither to be patronized nor idolized: we talk to him as man to man.”  ~ C.S. Lewis  

Learning to write for a target audience is a skill every aspiring writer needs to learn sooner than later.  Here are three skills you can begin to develop whether you are writing for a national magazine, an organization’s newsletter, or a blog:   Read more