While we writers write in isolation—session after session, alone in our writing rooms, when we show up at our computer screen and produce text, usually for most of us, this writing has an intended reading audience in mind, a group of people we want—and often need—to communicate with.
Writing memoir almost always implies a reading audience.
Whether we are writing for our children and grandchildren or for a whole class of unknown people out in the world, most of us have someone—a type of reading audience—in mind. Ultimately writing is a communication between a writer and readers.
If we think about it even a little bit, we will realize this audience is not likely to be the whole world. Instead it will be an appreciative group that is waiting for our memoir—even if its members do not yet know it.
Writing for a reading audience implies a dialog.
That we are writing for a reading audience implies that we are engaged in a dialog. Sometimes that dialog comes as a letter or an enote from a reader. Other times, it is expressed in a review on an online bookseller’s site.
All dialogs can be enhanced though attention to both the content and to the delivery. These can be learned with the mastery of literary techniques, discussions of which are ever present on this blog.
Learning how to write more engagingly to your reading audience can only benefit your ability to communicate.
In conclusion
These blog posts are one source of learning the craft of becoming a better writer by addressing your reading audience more effectively.
[To see a video that offers you four easy-to-implement tips to help your story to appeal to a broader public, click here.]
This is how to market a memoir!
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Your Memoir: Write with Your Audience in Mind
Before you start your memoir, write with your audience in mind by answering your readers’ questions. How do you do that? Try this exercise.
Beginning the End Stage Before Publication
Last week, I realized I needed to acknowledge to myself that I was in the end stage before publication of writing my memoir. For one thing, I finally came up with a name—French Boy / Growing Up Franco-American—that I’m likely to keep. (So many titles in the trash!) This title reveals the content of the […]
How to Write a Memoir for a Broader Audience: 4 Tips
Would you like your memoir to attract a broader audience? While family and friends are a worthy readership for your memoir, are you one of those many writers who aspires a larger public? Writers will admit, if pushed, that they would enjoy a public response to their efforts. Your story can appeal to strangers—if you […]
Who Cares About My Memoir?
Have you ever asked, “Who cares about my memoir?” A perennial, and perhaps inherent, challenge every memoir writer faces is that of audience. Specifically, every writer is saddled with the incapacitating doubt that there is an audience for his/her memoir.
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An important first step to sell your memoir is to identify your intended audience. This will affect what you include and the manner in which you write it.
Whom Are You Writing For?
“Whom are you writing for?” is the question I always ask writers as we start to work together to generate a memoir. “I want my children and grandchildren to know me,” some writers answer, “and I want to place my life in a greater context.Other memoirists will say, “I’m hoping to have readers beyond my […]
Who Will Be the Audience for My Memoir?
Your memoir has a niche audience. Writers ask me all the time: “Who will want to read my memoir?” Recently someone said, ”My memoir is probably of no interest to you or anyone else. There is no audience for my memoir!” Wondering about the available audience for your memoir is legitimate and necessary. At the […]
How to Write for A Larger Audience than Family and Friends — 4 Tips
So, you want to write for a larger audience than family and friends! While family and friends are a worthy readership for your memoir, it is possible to enjoy an even larger audience. Here are four suggestions to enable your story to appeal to a broader public.