Writing to a "target audience"...
Oct. 8th, 2014 01:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
agilebritI've heard you're "supposed" to do this.
But, to me, it's weird and I'm not sure I can. I write the stories I want to read. Does that mean that my target audience is myself? People with my tastes? My "tastes" are all over the place. My current WIP is a werewolf story in whichthe protagonist dies in the end after embracing his inner monster to protect the woman he loves . The one before that was a rather silly piece in which my mad scientist Frankensteins a flying weasel for a dying little girl.
Of course, the beauty of writing short fiction is that I can be all over the place, and I've had everything from hard SF to space opera to urban fantasy to secondary-world fantasy to weird west to horror published. I'm not sure what this does for my "branding" or if there even is such a thing at this stage in my career-as-it-sits (other than the fact that I am That Werewolf Writer because werewolves are what I keep coming back to, in all their glorious iterations).
I suppose I could target each piece to a specific audience, and I do that when I'm pounding something out for an open antho call, but I'm spotty even there, because I suck at "tone" (my many rejections at Shimmer bear this out--even though I've read the magazine I can't put my finger on what exactly they want, so I just... send them stuff in the interests of not self-rejecting). So I guess I'm writing each piece for the audience that likes hard SF or space opera or urban fantasy or secondary-world fantasy or weird westerns or horror.
With werewolves. And angels. Sometimes together. :P
But, to me, it's weird and I'm not sure I can. I write the stories I want to read. Does that mean that my target audience is myself? People with my tastes? My "tastes" are all over the place. My current WIP is a werewolf story in which
Of course, the beauty of writing short fiction is that I can be all over the place, and I've had everything from hard SF to space opera to urban fantasy to secondary-world fantasy to weird west to horror published. I'm not sure what this does for my "branding" or if there even is such a thing at this stage in my career-as-it-sits (other than the fact that I am That Werewolf Writer because werewolves are what I keep coming back to, in all their glorious iterations).
I suppose I could target each piece to a specific audience, and I do that when I'm pounding something out for an open antho call, but I'm spotty even there, because I suck at "tone" (my many rejections at Shimmer bear this out--even though I've read the magazine I can't put my finger on what exactly they want, so I just... send them stuff in the interests of not self-rejecting). So I guess I'm writing each piece for the audience that likes hard SF or space opera or urban fantasy or secondary-world fantasy or weird westerns or horror.
With werewolves. And angels. Sometimes together. :P