Regardless the type of writing you are doing, short or long, fiction or non-fiction, it’s important to take time to know your audience. The purpose of writing anything is to communicate. You want your work to speak to them and to that you need to write in language they can understand or relate to.
What are the basic demographics of your Audience?
Your style of writing may very well be shaped by your audience. Things like their age, income level, education level, gender, ethnicity and race, marital status and number of children all affect the type of writing they are likely to be comfortable reading. If work is too scholarly for them, they may find it too dry or be unable to understand; if too easy, they may find it remedial and beneath them.
Every reader comes to your piece with their own set of realities and experience which affect how they react to and interact with your work.
What are their objections, biases, or ingrained beliefs?
While I love murder mysteries, I personally do not like them to be too graphic or violent. I just don’t want that darkness in my head. There are so many people like me who feel that way that there is entire market of Cozy Mysteries that just don’t stray too far into the darkness. An author setting out to write cozy mysteries needs to be aware of where the limits are of graphic storytelling are, so they don’t go beyond them.
This does not mean you cannot address the biases or beliefs of your audience. On the contrary. If you are aware of their beliefs and objections, you can sneak up behind the reader and present a different viewpoint.
If you are writing to sell or persuade, you can address the objections more directly, but you need to know what they are. You can sell until you are blue in the face, but if you have not addressed the objections of your buyer, your persuasion will be futile.
Are they the Saints or the Sinners?
Whether you are writing to persuade, sell, or just to entertain, you do not want to inadvertently offend your audience.
You know the old expression, “you’re preaching to the choir”? Well, whether your audience are saints or sinners, no one likes to be preached to. There are two points here.
One is to be careful in your writing when presenting an opinion or world view. If you are writing fiction, it is more effective to present your view woven into or reflected in the outcome of the story or characters.
For example, old movies all killed off the teenagers who had sex and left the “good” kids alive rather than saying “teenage sex is bad”.
An exception to this is if the beliefs are important to understanding the personality or motivations of a character.
In non-fiction, depending on the audience, purpose of the piece, and place of publication, you can be much more straightforward in your opinion, but here too, persuasion is more effective.
Second, be sure your audience will not be offended by your language, dialogue, or references. For example, in cozy mysteries, foul language is seldom used but is found much more in hardline murder, spy and action thrillers. Even here however, not all characters need to use colorful language or sexual references.
In non-fiction, simply steer away from profanity, racial, ethnic, and sexual references and stereotyping.
Again, know your audience.
Does Your Audience have regional or technical preferences?
Speaking of language, regional idioms add great color to a work, but you want to be sure you don’t lose your audience. Do not overuse idioms and explain ones that might not make sense to the greater audience. In general it is a good idea to write the narrative in proper English, not a regional dialect. There are exceptions to the rule (Huckleberry Finn), but if most of the narrative is in proper English, be consistent.
Assume your audience understands fewer of your technical or industry specific terms than you think they do. It doesn’t hurt to explain your terms the first time you use them, just in case, LOL (laugh out loud). That way, your reader isn’t made to feel stupid for not knowing a term. Also, many terms and acronyms have multiple meanings or presentations. Explaining a term reduces the chance of a misunderstanding over its meaning.
In a scholarly paper there is less need to avoid technical terms, but it never hurts to make your work easier to read.
What does your audience hope to get from your writing?
Another point about knowing your audience is to know what they hope to get from your writing.
Are you giving them information about a product? Telling them what your services are? Or are they reading for entertainment and what does that mean to them? Regardless of the type of writing, the audience is looking for something. Knowing your audience is partly about giving them what they want to receive.
If they are looking for a romance novel, you can give them lots of things. But it better be wrapped around a romance novel. And it helps if you know where the line is for them between too little and too much romantic description.
Yes, its often true that you are really writing for yourself and your muse, but at the end of the day, someone will be reading your work. Keeping an idea in your mind of who your audience is, what they like and want, and how they want it presented will improve your writing and readability immensely.