Your Ideal Reader: Your Secret Weapon for Keeping Going as a Woman Writer

I’ve been talking a lot here about the stuff I’ve seen hold women writers back and what can get us unstuck.

This week, I want to address something I think is so important in terms of creating success as an female author – that is, knowing your why, your what and your who.

Why you write.
What exactly you want from out of all this.
Who precisely you want to reach with your project.

Writing is hard work, as well as joyous fun and the best trip of your life.

Hence it’s good to know your motivation and where you’re heading, so when all the shit patriarchy throws at us personally, physically, financially, culturally and emotionally comes around, we have fuel to keep going.

In fact, when women writers come to me with their fears, I often ask them who their ideal reader is – who they’d like to touch with their words.

Often it’s someone who’s going through the same tough experience a memoirist has survived, or the older woman who feels increasingly invisible when my woman novelist wants her to understand she’s still beautiful and relevant.

Or it’s a single mother starting a business who my entrepreneur writer client needs to know she can create success for herself and her family.

When my women writers start to talk about their readers and see how much their work positively will impact other women and change their lives, suddenly they’re on fire!

They are no longer scared.

They’re no longer tired.

The wobbles of the ego longer matter as they realise it’s not about them – it’s about the bigger picture.

About the women who need their work.

Who needs to hear your voice?

Who needs to know they are not alone?

Who are you going to give hope to?

Write for them and you’ll gain all the strength you need for the writing journey.

That’s how we push patriarchy from the page.