by Darcy Pattison
Do you recycle your work, especially your non-fiction work? On several smaller projects this month, I’ve recycled information about writing and the audience has meant a huge revision. Some of the writing I’ve done about novel revision has been in informal emails that I’ve saved for just such a time as this. The informal nature of email v. the more formal nature of an article meant that the ideas were there and nearly formed, but the structure, the wording and the examples had to be replaced.
Do you have a reader in mind when you write? Most of us think we’re writing either a YA or a MG or an adult story and that colors everything we decide about the story.
Sometimes, I just write, though and don’t have an audience in mind. Revisions requested by the editor often reflect this lack of focused attention on the audience.
I’ve heard that some writers choose a picture and put it on their walls and think the whole time, “I’m writing for this person.” Do you consider your audience before you write? Do you have a specific person or audience in mind? Or do you just write for yourself and then see where it matches up with audience?