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When you are about to write something professionally, just about any communications person, including me, will inevitably ask “who is your audience?”

I’m beginning to realize that is a really bad question for people who struggle with writing.

The idea behind the question is good. Figure out who your particular audience is and then write in a way that will speak to that group, whether it be board members, colleagues, or activists.

But in practice, I find that for my writing coaching clients, thinking about their audience often paralyzes them. Thinking about their audience too much is sometimes the reason they hired me in the first place.

My clients get so wrapped up in worrying that their audience, especially people higher up in their organization, will judge their writing that it becomes a chokehold on them. They either can’t write at all, or their writing becomes a painful forced march where they are trying to tick all the boxes so that their writing will get a passing grade. They are playing defense. It is sad that they feel those pressures so acutely. And it is terrible for the writing process.

These are all questions I’ve heard from my clients:

• What if they think I’m not smart about this issue?
• What if my colleagues point out that I missed an important nuance?
• What if what I write is seen as politically at odds with leadership?

My clients’ fears about seeming dumb, simple, or out of step causes them real angst in their writing. It’s often the biggest hurdle that we need to get through in coaching.

I’m not trying to diminish real concerns or realities about the context in which someone is writing.

But no good, real, alive writing will ever come out of those fears.

Here’s the truth. Your best writing comes when your audience is you.

You write the story that dazzles you.

You write what’s in your heart.

You write for you.

When you write for you, just you, it unleashes something beautiful. I’ve seen it over and over with my clients. That vice grip that shackled them in their writing falls away. They are suddenly free. They lowered the stakes because, for now, they are writing for an audience of one.

And I am reading what a real, alive, thinking, caring human being wants to share with the world. It is honestly pretty emotional to witness. I see otherwise smart, capable people who have lacked such confidence in this one area of their professional lives suddenly bloom in their writing.

And the amazing thing is that the more they write for themselves first, the more confidence they get that they have something worthwhile to say to the world.

When you write for you, your singular, needed perspectives becomes so vibrant people will be drawn to it in a way they never would be with some safe, by the numbers piece.

We are awash in mushy, muddy, mediocre, writing. No one needs more of that.

So what does this mean practically for your professional writing?

Write for you—no one else—on your first draft of any writing.

Write exactly the way you would want to talk about this topic. No one else will see the early versions. Just lay it out. Make your strongest, most provocative arguments. Push the envelope.

It may lower the stakes for you to see these first versions as just getting your thinking on paper.

Starting with what you want to say without other voices swirling in your head will instantly make your writing better.

If you then need to run your writing by a colleague or a boss and dial things back a bit or add some context you will still have started with a much stronger piece of writing then if you censored yourself from the beginning.

What if my boss hates it you might ask. As my stained glass teacher used to say to me when I was afraid to make a cut in glass, what’s the worst that can happen? You break it and start over. But you probably won’t have to. In my experience, when you write from your heart without worrying about what others will think your writing will rise to the top.

For one thing, it is so unusual to read anything with a bit of spice in it, people will gravitate to your writing.

And maybe most important, you will have a new sense of confidence seeing your words expressed just the way you want to without filters or shackles.

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If you’re looking for more writing tips, check out my blog.
Looking for help with your writing? Please get in touch with me at [email protected]