Out of everything I’ve learned in the last 14+ years of writing1 , there’s one little gem of truth that gives me a huge rush of creative freedom. I say this sentence like a spell whenever I sink into a froth of insecurity. Repeat after me:
IT’S NOT FOR EVERYONE.
A few years ago a friend told me about something they’d written, and how a reader had responded with not-so-generous criticism. But my friend shrugged and said blandly, They’re not my target audience. She dismissed their dissatisfaction because she didn’t create with them in mind. They weren’t her audience, weren’t her reader, and so she didn’t waste time worrying that they didn’t like her work.
I mean. For a diehard people-pleaser like me, this was a revolutionary thought, a forehead-smack of an idea. Not everyone has to love what I write? What freedom! Because OF COURSE what we create isn’t for everyone. If you sew, imagine trying to sew a jumpsuit that would fit and flatter every body. Trying to produce creative work for a nameless, shapeless “everyone” only makes your work bland and diluted and forgettable. But knowing your target audience clarifies vision and, ideally, leads to work that speaks to exactly who you want it to (which, again, is not everyone!).
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