Give your reader a face
Only water is for everyone
“Your audience is one single reader. I have found that sometimes it helps to pick out one person—a real person you know, or an imagined person—and write to that one.”
–John Steinbeck
Some life advice disguised as writing advice. Write to one person. Craft for someone specific. Imagine their eyes, nose, ears, and all the rest. Give your reader a face.
Every creator trains on an audience of one. A drawing for mom, a letter to Santa. I got my start pleasing an eccentric English teacher. My first blog was an extended love letter to someone on Craig’s List. And when I write these microprinciples, I think about you.
See how it works?
As a former copywriter, I have witnesseth marketers chase the broadest audience. Only water is for everyone and even then some prefer it sparkling. Universal appeal is a myth.
Because there is no dependable definition of “Generation Z” or “mothers” or “product managers.” There is Jen, nineteen, so-excited-scared-she-could-puke about going away to university. There is Wright, awake at 3am with her colicky god-daughter. There is Penn, running late to all his meetings, overwhelmed by deadlines.
Find the face, not a demographic. Write to Jen, not to Gen Z. There is an individual on the other side of these words. And paradoxically, the more specific your writing, the more universal it will feel. Because we are all family.
The Shyamalan-esque twist: you must give the reader your face, too. They don’t want words, they want a voice. Show them your smudged glasses, your 3am thoughts, your palpable dehydration. The surest way to find your people is to reveal yourself first.