by A.C. Williams @ACW_Author

Many moons ago, I was invited to visit a missionary down in the jungles of northern Guatemala. He asked me to write a script that would be translated and performed with puppets for a community of indigenous people. As we began the process of creating the story, I learned a valuable lesson about writing for a specific audience.

I began my initial planning for that project with a story to introduce people to God, but the missionary stopped me. The thing about this particular culture? Well, they know God exists. They have no problem believing that God is real. What they are searching for is clarity to understand that God is bigger than the gods they are already serving (i.e. the god of the mountains, the god of the sun, the god of the moon, etc.). Knowing that about the audience for the story changed my entire approach.

What do your readers need? That question is vital to every storyteller. No reader (probably not even your mom) has the time to read something simply because you wrote it. Readers don’t owe you their time. As long as we are competing against YouTube and Netflix and other streaming services for the attention of an audience, we must establish why our stories are worthy of their time.

You must answer the question: “So what?” and “What’s in it for me?” If your story doesn’t resonate with a particular audience’s questions, you won’t reach them. And if your story doesn’t reach anyone, what’s the point of investing all the time, effort, and money to write it?

And, yes, it’s a valid answer to say that God told you to write it. If God has led you to write a story that is entirely unmarketable and is destined to sit on a shelf and gather dust, that’s fine. In that case, it’s the lessons you learn in the process of writing that are the most valuable. In that instance, the story is for you so that you can grow in your relationship with God, and that is a wonderful thing.

But it’s my personal belief that storytellers aren’t meant to tell stories only for themselves. I believe storytellers are called to reveal truth to listeners in a way that helps them process life and draws them closer to Truth. A storyteller can’t fulfill that calling if she only ever writes for herself.

Authors tend to be highly introspective people. We are artists after all. We pursue understanding. We like to know why things work, and we like to experience emotion through words on a page. We see the world differently.

We’re weird. It’s okay to admit it. Our brains are truly wired differently from non-writers. I’ve known enough authors throughout the decades that I can confidently say none of us fit the mold of the average consumer of media and entertainment. This creates a problem, though, because what interests us as authors rarely is the same as what attracts a reader.

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Know what that means?

Yup. Research. We have to study our audience. We have to get to know them as people, as communities, as friends.

Think about trying to buy a Christmas present for someone you don’t know. That’s one of the hardest challenges I can imagine, especially if you have no means to ask that person what they even want. Do they have allergies? Do they hate fluffy socks? Do they only listen to Scandinavian pop music?

If you don’t know who you are buying for, the best option is a gift card. Provide them with the opportunity to buy something they like, something they choose, something they want. That’s a perfectly acceptable gift, but you know what it isn’t? Personal. A gift card usually indicates that the giver doesn’t know you well enough to buy something for you directly (or it might indicate that you’re just hard to buy for, lol).

Stories should be personal. Stories should strike a chord with their intended audiences. Stories need to mean something. The best way to accomplish this is through the use of universal themes and truths.

There are some themes that resonate with every person in every place in every culture. Home. Safety. Acceptance. Unconditional love. Courage in the face of fear. Gratitude in the face of loss. Hope in the face of grief. Regardless of culture, race, or creed, there are some stories that resonate with everyone. But the framework you use to communicate those truths is what needs to change based on your demographic.

Writing a book should be about serving your readers. What do your readers want? What do they need? What are they looking for? What makes them happy? What makes them sad? What makes them cheer?

A 24-year-old woman isn’t going to care about the same things in the same way that a 60-year-old woman does. Maybe they both yearn for home and family, but communicating the achievement of that theme will look different based on who you are writing for.

You cannot write stories for a 60-year-old Christian woman and expect that a 20-year-old pagan will read it and meet Jesus. Now, has that happened? Of course. And if you are called to write to 60-year-old Christian women, do it. Do it to the best of your ability. That is a viable audience with specific needs and pain points. Write stories that resonate with them.

But if you believe you are called to write to GenZ pagans and non-theists and the confused masses desperately seeking illumination, don’t expect that you can speak their language without knowing a few of them personally.

So get out of your office. Pray about connecting with the people you need to meet. Divine appointments are absolutely a thing. Go to a coffeeshop. Introduce yourself to someone you don’t know. Maybe visit a book club and get to know people in the age demographic you think you’re called to. Research and AI-supported search prompts will only get you so far. Go talk to a real-life person.

Write a great story, yes. Learn the craft to the best of your ability, yes. Work to grow as an author so that you can capture ideas and concepts that resonate with an audience, yes. And be honest and authentic in the stories you write, absolutely. But never forget that the heart of storytelling is serving your audience.

How will your story bless the people who are reading it?

A.C. Williams is a coffee-drinking, sushi-eating, story-telling nerd who loves cats, country living, and all things Japanese. Author of more than 20 books, she keeps her fiction readers laughing with wildly imaginative adventures about samurai superheroes, clumsy church secretaries, and goofy malfunctioning androids; her non-fiction readers just laugh at her and the hysterical life experiences she’s survived. If that’s your cup of tea (or coffee), join the fun at www.amycwilliams.com.