Mom, who is your audience?
I was reading stories on Medium.com for a few years. I follow a few authors there and love the platform overall. I appreciate a clean look of an article without any advertisement. I can find content that stimulates my thinking and reflections about the world, subscribe to topics and publications that interest me. My reading does not have to tie to all the publicity, or latest news with someone’s agenda, or follow “let's get really scared and make choices out of fear” messages.
Then I thought I can try the platform to share some of my writing. Just to experiment I added four stories. The topics range from Fairytale to contemplations on parenting, to stories about my upbringing in the Soviet Union, to marvels I discovered on my travels. The variety of time to read a single story: 3 min, 4 min, 5 min, 15 min. Then I wanted to show it to someone to get their feedback.
I showed it to my son, asking for a favor to check my English. And was confronted with an important question: Mom, who are you writing for? It’s clear you are writing for yourself, but… who is your audience?
This question was not a new thing for me to hear, I heard the same question from a teacher in the writing class. Yet, it was painfully clear that I do not have a clear answer for Anton, except for “I am not sure, I do not really know”.
Painful but honest. My first thought, “This is strange and useless, and sad”. The next thought, “I want to find out more”. After a few days, another thought — I could ask for insight using the “Consult with a friend” option. Dear reader, if you happen to read up to this point, or if you spent a few minutes reading some of my stories on Medium, I am very thankful. What is it that made you spend these precious minutes of your time?
