So…you’ve decided to be a writer. Congratulations you poor pitiful soul. You have chosen to tap into your most inner world and expose yourself to all of humanity. Here are some things that every writer should know.

Not Everybody Agrees With You. If you are a people pleaser, you probably shouldn’t write. You will write things that you felt on one particular day and somebody will find the need to disagree with you and post that underneath your comments. This usually happens when I post on sponsored blogs. Congratulations! You have created a reaction! You might even have to explain how writing about a touchy subject can help somebody else. It might be good to have a dialogue with loved ones about what might be off limits to write about…maybe you’ll even listen.

Be Aware of Your Audience. Again, write for yourself, but if there is an audience you are writing for then adapt to that. I have contributed to sponsored blogs. This is just one example of how similar, but different an audience could be. When I contributed to ‘dad blogs’ I had to keep in mind that I was writing for a male audience (mostly), with the mommy blog I was writing to a vast mommy audience. There are some posts that did better than others, and when you are aware of your audience it gives you more insight on what works.

Know Your Intent. Blog posts can come across as lengthy rants, articles can be informative, humor can sneak in anywhere. I know that personally, I write to vent emotion, to inform, to entertain, to empathize…it can all be thrown into the same post sometimes. It is important that you, as the writer, know and understand your intention for writing a particular piece. Give it a purpose….then realize your intent. An audience member that takes your parody humorous post with a journal research article mind is just not your problem.

Be in the Moment. It is not important that you write things that you will agree with later on. I can go back to a certain blog post and realize that I don’t necessarily feel that way right now, and that is fine. It would be worthwhile if readers would remember this truth to. Just because I wrote a tongue in cheek comment about not being able to leave the house with my four kids on a cold winter day when my youngest was a toddler does not mean that I won’t take them all out to a festival on a sunny day by myself today. I still do not take them all to the grocery store without backup. This truth stands. Blog posts are basically journal entries shown to the public. While words do, in fact, have power, it is important to know that people evolve, people change…little kids grow up and so do their mommies.

Write for Yourself. Once I wrote a super long blog post and somebody advised me that I should shorten it for the sake of my audience. I then decided to give a Part 1 and then Part 2 to the next blog post…nobody cares. Realize that as a writer, you may or may not have an audience. Be true to that truth. Also, you might not make any money writing…at all.. Don’t take the expression “Penny for your thoughts?” too literally. Write because you enjoy it, but understand the true value of your words.