Writers Are You Just Dating Your Readers or Did You Get Hitched?

Ah, the courting period begins and there you are, tossing out pick-up lines and one-liners replete with glorious, self-indulgent prose you think will amaze your date. In the beginning you offer jazzy phrases and promise your readers a steady diet of unicorns and glittering rainbows.

You’ve been hitting the dating scene so long you never stop to ask your new reader what makes them sad, what makes them happy, what they don’t like and why. You tell yourself you’re just on a date and if you can get the reader warmed up and if they have a great time maybe you can get lucky.

You’re the writer who really doesn’t care what your new hookup needs. You write different things for each new date thinking they will somehow sense how much you care.

But you don’t care about the reader do you?

It’s not about them right? They aren’t sitting in your chair pounding shit out.

To keep getting dates with readers you become a freaking chameleon.

You change your style, your tone and your voice with each new date because you want to impress for success. You start casting your net without thinking what you want to catch. When you’re on a date you don’t care if your reader is a whale or a minnow.

At least you’re on a date right?

For you it’s all about getting lucky. Hey, your throw-it-on-the-wall approach worked in the past didn’t it? There was that time two years ago someone actually read what you wrote.

As a writer who only wants to date you’re not about commitment. Committing to your bevy of first dates is not in your DNA right? You want to play the field; write anything and everything hoping for another date, another one-and-done fling.

Then, as quick as it started your dating scene with readers comes to a screeching halt. You’re left staring at your marvelous prose wondering what the hell happened.

So you stop dating…

And you sulk…

And you continue to sulk while you’re not dating.

And you sulk some more…

Then one day, or year, or decade after you stopped dating you tell yourself as a writer you’re better than this. You tell yourself you’re done with the dating scene. You want a lasting relationship with your readers.

But entering into a serious relationship with your readers won’t be an easy task. The reader needs more. They are just as much done with the dating scene as you are. They want you to commit to them.

They expect you to marry them.

In order to do this you’ll have to change your DNA. You’ll have to do your research, understand what your dates wanted to read way back when. You will have to find your voice and tone, your real voice, your real tone and stick with them. You will have to learn how to make them better, polish them until they flow as smooth as a silk scarf flitting across a pane of glass.

And then you have to get even better.

By getting better you’ll discover how to put the reader’s needs before your own. You will learn to put the reader on a pedestal and how to love, cherish and honor them — until death do you part.

You will finally be able to sustain a life long relationship with your partner in this journey — the reader.

So I’ll tell you what.

When you and your reader finally decide to tie the knot why don’t you give me a call? I’ll bring a bunch of rice bags to toss as you both dash away for your honeymoon.