Target Audience

When you are writing, it is important to consider who you are writing to and why. I've done a good bit of writing with out this consideration and it usually falls a flat, makes the reader say what is the point. Imagine describing a tree for a Dr. Seuss style piece as compared to how you would write it for a botanist. One would have rhyming descriptions of made up words like leavish or springly, while the other would tell of the knot pattern and details of the leaf structure. Either would be the disappointment to the other.

As some of you are aware I have completed the rough draft of a book on accountability. It was written as a result of some success I have had as a result of these relationships, but it was not written well. I know this because I started it without and audience, then multiple audiences, then finally at the end, in the very last chapter, one audience. I'm not writing to lament the amount of rewriting, I actually want to share the audience I decided on.

I remember struggling with every word of the first chapter of the book, which is kind of an introduction to accountability. It had moments of interesting facts, but it failed to breath. It just didn't spring from the page. I wrote the what's and whys, but I had no way to say for you this is why it is important. You can't drive a message home if you don't know who the message is to.

So, at the recommendation of James, who I shared the first chapter with when it was done, I choose an audience, well several audiences. I wanted it to be useful for secular and churched audiences and I wanted it to be for both those holding others accountable and those who were being held accountable. So,the next few chapters went.

The writing got easier with this variety of audiences, when I slowed I could shift perspective and keep going. I would write broadly about accountability in the workplace for a while, then shift to in church, with appropriate verses. I could write about the things you might want help working on, then how you would help someone else with their things. I could string together paragraphs as I hovered over my iPad, but there was still something off.

It took me a while, most of the chapters to realize what it was, but here it is. I can't write a book that is for that many people, all those audiences and do it well. In fact, I don't even think all those people need addressing in that kind of format. Accountability, Iron sharpening iron, is an act between Christians. It can't be done, at least in the way I have practiced it, without the presence of God. So, my audience, the people I can write to from my experience are Christians. The next thing I realized is everyone needs work on many things, home, family, bible study, work proclivity, diet, exercise, and the list goes on. What people don't have is people to help them, and those that could, don't know how. So, my audience is the sharpeners, those people who want aid those people around them, but don't know how. When it is done, I hope to raise up a group who are ready, willing, and able to improve the lives of those around them by helping them achieve thing they have never achieved before.