#HeyWriter—Connect with Your Reader
Writing has a purpose: to be read. Think of it like a time capsule containing ideas, instruction, and emotion. When written thoughts are master-crafted, the brilliance of the work shines when a reader’s eyes find it.
Can I suggest you’re not just smithing words? A writer establishes a relationship. That’s what writing really is. It’s a beautiful relationship—a dance if you like—transcending time and distance on paper or paperless. The work is choreographed movement, and we’d have a tough time deciding who takes the lead. It’s a chicken-egg question, for sure: which came first, the writer’s thoughts or the reader in mind?
Connection
Writing in this century allows for immediate sharing or time to pass. The distance can be down the street or anywhere on the globe with translation! Technology has moved writing and publishing to a whole different level. (Makes me glad I wasn’t born in Mesopotamia thousands of years ago. Cuneiform, anyone?) Still the relationship is a connection—the writer sends an intellectual or emotional message, and the reader receives and engages with those ideas on an intellectual or emotional level. You have to love a meeting of the minds and a connection of the hearts.
Relational responsibility
That’s an intellectual definition up there, but it works. I think the writer is responsible for connection, not the reader, and I have thoughts.
Know your audience. This isn’t new, and maybe it’s been over-done. It’s critical, though. A writer forms the message with a reader in mind. The particulars are sifted through. Will gender, age, vocabulary, or length of the work play in? The smart writer knows if those things are important to the message, and the key factors become part of the relational choreography on the page.
Share the real you. A reader will engage differently when writing is academic (read: cold) and when it is a story with personal details (read: warm). Often the scientific research paper isn’t the place for your personal details. We know that. Where the writer runs into trouble is with a piece that “writes the author out of it.” It’s the difference between “You should _______” and “Can I share my experience with _______?” Done well, the story is captivating and convincing. The second choice has “Engagement” written all over it. Telling coldly and sharing warmly will be received differently. Decide how you’d like to reveal your heart and mind and how you’d like your reader to receive the message.
Have integrity. This means a few things in non-fiction writing.
Write honestly. Create non-fiction works that are truthful and sound in argument or character portrayal. Do your research for non-fiction works.
Have intellectual integrity. This can be difficult. As a rule, our American culture reasons poorly. Logic is rarely taught. A good writer accepts when the argument falls flat. Either that work is re-worked, or it reveals the problems openly (read: not in the fine print).
Presentation matters. Passion about the message is good and right, but incorporating spin, hype, or inciting an audience with fake news is unkind. Choose passionate words well within your style. Consider using the best words stated positively rather than negatively.
In fiction, integrity flows through the work’s message with some of the elements above, but I think there’s more. Create a solid and meaningful plot. The characters and details should be consistent (think: world building or personal description). When confusion sets in a reader notices a misstep in the dance.
Share your heART. Don’t miss this. Share from the heart to your reader even when you’re tempted to lean into the brain academically. When you care deeply about the message, the writing process feels different to both the author and the reader. Writing is an art, and it is art. Imagine what might happen if that ten-page paper had a little more heart behind it. Poetry and creative writing lean into the heart very naturally. Writing blog posts about writing might not. Unless—
Love makes the words go ’round. Want your words to connect meaningfully, to have a full dance card with reader after reader engaging? It’s about the love, baby. Think about your reader. Do you know what she needs? Do you know the air she breathes, the vital source of life she’s seeking? Do you know her pains and sorrows, her joys and thrills? Write to those things because you care.
Love your reader. She’s waiting to experience your choreography in the work. Whatever you offer her, make sure you gift artfully crafted words of truth and integrity (fiction or non-) from your authentic heart. Let the work be motivated by love, to enrich her life, whether for inspiration, education, or her deep, soulish joy. It’s for her.
Connect deeply. Go change the world with your good words, writer!
~Jennifer
