Blogging 101: Identify Your Audience

Publish a post you’d like your ideal audience member to read, and include a new-to-you element in it.

This will be fun. Ready, set, go.

Work hard now.

My mom believes that if you work hard now, you won’t have to work as hard later. With context she means I should study hard while I’m in school so my life will be slightly better when I’m older. “Life is hard. It’s harder if you’re stupid.” Not the best quote to insert here, but give me some credit for trying. I think the biggest piece of advice I can give aspiring writers is to work hard now. Don’t put off something you can do today, right this minute. Talent, skill, luck only gets you so far. The rest of the journey is up to you.

Fail. Fail. Fail. 

If you aren’t failing, you’re doing something wrong. One of my teachers compares writing to baseball. You will fail a lot. Baseball players don’t hit every ball they’re thrown. In fact, no hitter even succeeds fifty percent of the time. Failure means you’re doing well. You’re getting closer and closer each time you fail.

Forgive yourself.

You will make mistakes. So learn from them. Get better. Don’t be bitter. Haven’t learned how to forgive yourself? Make yourself. Force yourself. Do whatever it takes. You’ll be much happier once you master the art of forgiveness.

This post originally started out (in my mind) as advice I’d give to aspiring writers. Turns out, these are three pieces of advice I’d give myself. Make that four.

The new-to-me element is a picture with advice written in the caption. Didn’t see that one coming, did you?

Never stop reading.

Sometimes the person you’re actually writing to is you. Sometimes it’s your mom, your cousin, your friend, your teacher, your boss, etc. So write with your audience in mind. Just don’t forget to write for yourself too.