[Dalya’s Note: This is Part 1 of an excerpt from my award-winning book Writing to Make a Difference: 25 Powerful Techniques to Boost Your Community Impact.]
Writing to make a difference must be reader-centered and not writer-centered. You have to shift your attention, and your pre-occupations, from yourself to your readers. After all, they care about themselves, their communities, and their impact much more than they care about your organization.
To write is to engage in an intimate conversation (on paper) with your readers. And for that, you need to know whom you are addressing, and—most importantly—what they want to get out of conversing with you.
You might be one of the lucky writers out there who already know exactly who will be reading their work, and why. But chances are good that you are at least a bit fuzzy.
The good news is that your document will, most likely, be read by one person at a time. In a sense, you and your reader will create a private world—together. That means that you can write toward only that one person.
So, try to visualize a “typical” reader (or maybe two or three). You might even want to post a picture of that person in your writing space, to serve as a constant reminder of whom you are talking to. You want to make sure that what you have to say is going to be understood. While each reader will interpret your words differently, you can do your best to make it easy for her or him to integrate what you are saying.
Bonus tip
In his bestselling book The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell describes three types of people who comprise an especially effective group that you want to reach: “connectors” (people who know an enormous number of people as friends or acquaintances), “mavens” (people who accumulate knowledge and want to share it with others) and “salesmen” (people with a gift for verbal and nonverbal persuasion). Gladwell writes that, “In the six degrees of separation [between each person and everyone else], not all degrees are equal.”
Personally speaking
When I write in my personal journal, I know exactly who is going to be reading it: me, myself, and I. I can just look in the mirror to get a good image of my reader. So I feel free to write with abandon, about anything, however I choose. I have no concerns about writer/reader differences or reader misinterpretations, or even reader interest. I highly recommend journaling, for these reasons. However, beware of confusing your own perspective with that of an outside reader. Navel gazing has a tendency to chase away everyone except your therapist and close friends. That goes for organizations too!
(See Part 2 of this article: HERE)
