Know Thy Audience

Audience is something that has come up a lot for me lately. I’ve been taking a lot of writing classes as a way to keep building my craft and just stay writing. It helps so much, and I’ve been able to grow as a writer and really show off skills I didn’t know I had. Writing classes and workshops mean that your work will be critiqued in some way. This isn’t news to me. I have also worked as a content and copywriter before. If you ever want to see if you have tough skin, just work as a content and copywriter. I’ve had my worked described as “blah” or a “bunch of bullsh!t” before. Guess what…I kept writing because it was my job.

I think for me, those negative comments weren’t that big of a deal because I was getting paid regularly. Part of getting paid was getting critiqued. Mind you, I pushed back on some minor things, but for the most part I took the critique and kept going. Writing for someone allows you to disconnect from it a lot easier. It’s not my work. It’s theirs. Often my name was never on it, so I didn’t have to feel like they were talking about something that was connected to my soul.

Fiction writing on the other hand is a little different. Writing an essay, a poem, or definitely a book is more involved and requires an investment of body, mind, and soul. Literal blood (papercuts), sweat, and tears go into a piece of work. Critiques are hard and can be damaging. This is even more true when you either don’t know your audience or you are getting feedback from someone that isn’t a part of your audience.

I know as writers we are supposed to want our work to reach the masses. Worldwide distribution, translated to multiple languages, and all of that sounds great. Ideally, it means well-lined pockets, but in all honesty that only applies to certain authors. Many of the authors I’ve looked up to my entire life are always writing and publishing because even though they are widely published, they still can’t retire and live from their royalties. Racism in this industry gets called out every few years, but no one is going to fix it. E. L. James doesn’t have to write ever again, but Toni Morrison wrote her entire life even after winning a Nobel Prize.

All writers are not the same.

Speaking of Toni Morrison, she wrote for a Black audience with the knowledge that white people were going to read her work. We know this because she said it. She also wrote about Black people, which she was highly criticized for. One day, I will pen my love letter to Toni Morrison, but not today.

My audience is Black women, with the knowledge that other people will show up. Understand this, my understanding that other people will read my work doesn’t impact the fact that I am writing for and about Black women. Other people showing up just means I get their readership/money. The people I want to converse with are Black women. It’s like having a conversation with a friend. Other people may eavesdrop, but that doesn’t change my conversation.

My audience is Black women because I am a Black woman. It’s really that simple. One of my favorite writing workshops is hosted by two Black women. Both of them are amazing. Everyone in the group is not Black, but they are all non-white. We have the best time giving each other feedback. One of the reasons I enjoy the group is because it is literally a microcosm of how I view my audience. I’m writing about and for Black women with the knowledge that others are listening too. No one in that particular group has an issue with it. We just write what is…<wink wink>

I’ve had marketing people try to talk me out of it. One in particular tried to dilute it by saying “I know you want your audience to be women of color, but…” Meanwhile, I didn’t say “women of color.” I said Black women. There is a huge difference here. There is a level of authenticity and unapologetic-ness about my audience that I have as a part of my life. I know talking to them through whatever I am writing will be conveyed exactly as I am writing it. There won’t be any willful or accidental misunderstandings. There is the work, and you take it or leave it.

This makes some of the other writing classes and workshops I attend very challenging because I am likely the only non-white person in the room. Sometimes, I am the only woman and the only non-white person in the room. Things get really tricky then. White people either “really love my work but want to know all of the details about the non-white people in my stories” or they really don’t like my stories because it offends them. The ones that fall in the second category often mask their disdain by telling me that my story lacks something that is clearly present.

These are easy to weed out but then you are left with a few good points about your story that you have to slog through to find. I often wonder if a particular critique session is a waste of time in these instances. Either way, I have a few good beta readers that I can always rely on. I tend to send my work to them prior to a class critique. That helps with a lot of the anxiety that can come from having people that don’t fit my audience look at my work when it is in the revision stage.

Anyway, that is all I have for you today. Hopefully, your day is going well and whether you are a writer or just a reader you will find exactly what you need when you need it.

Until next time…Later babes…

Movies are fair game…

Contact