Professional writers always have one main aim in mind with everything they write: to transform their audience. Great writers strive to help their audience see through different eyes, act differently, alter the way they interact with the world.
Amateur writers write for the sake of writing. While this may generate copious amounts of inconsequential content or provide them personal pleasure, it does nothing to increase business prospects, improve the world, or move their audience to take action.
Someone can throw words together and make complete sentences (case in point: most of the blogosphere), but in case you require to actually have impact through your writing, you must learn to write for transformation. It is the difference between being merely informative and being compelling and persuasive.
There are three simple steps to transformational writing:
1) writing for a specific audience,
2) using the right venue, and
3) choosing and executing the right type of transformation.
1. Specific Audience
In case you require to reach your audience, it is absolutely crucial that you understand them, get out of your own point of view, and write to their point of view. One of the first things I do with every piece I write is identify my target audience, things such as age, gender, race/ethnicity, location, income level, purchasing habits, hobbies, talents, interests, etc.
When I do know who I am speaking to, I am prepared to custom tailor the message to resonate with them specifically. For example, words such as “revolutionary,” “cutting-edge,” “fresh,” or “in vogue” will more likely resonate with an 18-25 age group, whereas a 60-70 age group will probably have negative reactions to them, who prefer things that are “proven,” “safe,” & “sensible.”
2. The Right Venue
For example, if I am writing a lengthy article on financial owner intended for students & economists, the best venue is probably a scholarly journal. Few people can stand to read long blocks of significant text on a computer screen, I probably won’t have space to make my case in most magazines, etc. On the other hand, if my content is concise, simple, & intended for a broad audience, perhaps a newspaper article makes sense.
By venue I mean the medium used to convey your message, including such things as magazines, newspapers, journals, books, radio & TV ads, blogs, sites, etc. The venue you pick is, largely, determined by your audience.
All of us are exposed to written communications that they skim or ignore, yet if that same message is introduced in a venue more palatable to us, we are much more likely to spend time reading it. Writing for transformation requires utilizing the best venue for our subject matter & audience.
3. The Right Transformation
Amateurs look at this list & try to do all three; professionals focus on one & nail it, because doing so affects the others. How would you like people’s lives to alter because they read your message? What would you like to see occur in them? Do you primarily need them to know, feel, or do something? Pick one-yes, one-and execute it well, & the others will take care of themselves.
There are three types of transformations: know, feel, & do.
A know transformation seeks to give the readers new information, or elderly information arranged in a different way, to help them to learn & know things they didn’t know before, in such a way that changes their life & point of view.
A feel transformation obviously seeks to evoke strong emotion in the audience, while a do is designed to get an audience to take very specific, immediate, & tangible action.
In case you need your message to actually have impact, you must learn to write for transformation. Know who you are writing to, use the right venue to reach them, & pick the right transformation & execute it well. After all, transformational writing is the only writing worth reading.
