Your MTR (and what this actually is)

I think we’ve all been there:

The paralysis that can happen when you sit to write, or think about writing, and suddenly you think of them.

All of the people who have ever made fun of you, criticized you, made you feel small.

Add in all of the people who you think do it better than you, have achieved more than you, and who are judging you, and you’ve got a pretty potent mix that is guaranteed to stop you writing.

Anne Lamott, author of Bird by Bird: Some instructions on writing and life says:

Then your mental illnesses arrive at the desk like your sickest, most secretive relatives. And they pull up chairs in a semicircle around the computer, and they try to be quiet but you know they are there with their weird coppery breath, leering at you behind your back.

It’s that feeling on the back of your neck of being watched, caught and collared that will stunt your writing.

A destructive audience mindset will do just that.

And then you’ll start writing to please a broad and critical audience.

If we insist on writing whilst we’re in such a mindset, we dilute our work and our words, cramming them into boxes that we have made to fit what others seem to want for or from us.

We let down not only ourselves, because we’re not putting into the world that which needs to be born through us, but we’re letting down our most powerful ally next to our True Inner Writer: the reader who needs us most, your Most Treasured Reader. (Read more on your True Inner Writer here):

So if you’re creating, and you are thinking of your audience and you become aware that you’re diluting your work , rubbing off its individual patina to make it fit an idea of an ‘audience’ that you have, aka making it hard for yourself, what do you do?

Firstly I’d stop.

It can be really tempting to just push on and try to fix the problem on the fly.

To keep writing, pushing words out of yourself, forcing it.

This is not going to save you time, I promise!

Though you might be getting more words on that page, they will still be slightly stilted, diluted or just feel a bit ‘off’.

Stopping and getting yourself back to your creative centre, connecting to your True Inner Writer, and calling up your image of your Most Treasured Reader will be much quicker, and more effective in the long run, than trying to push through

So who is this Most Treasured Reader – or MTR – anyway?

Put simply, your Most Treasured Reader is the one reader who most needs to hear what you’re writing.

They are the one who will keep you going when the going gets tough. Remembering your MTR will be like having a compass in a snowstorm, a super-high TV antenna in a no-reception area, or just a really good internal map.

I believe that if you have a burning impulse to write something, then there’s someone out there who needs to hear it.

And on a planet this big, with this many people, there are many people out there who need to hear it.

Finding that person – the idea of that person – and writing to them is the key to keeping your writing sounding like you, and feeling spot-on.

But! It’s usually not very helpful to think of a crowd of people when you’re trying to write. That’s because the act of writing is a bit of a private one.

Think about it: usually when you send a piece of writing out into the world, you’re sending out something that you’ve worked on for a bit. That you’ve left for a little, thought about and honed. You’re sending out a considered piece of work. Thinking of the crowds who may read your work as you’re still thrashing it out will not be very helpful.

What I’m asking you to do in this process is to think of your MTR (singular) as you write.

Think about your most ideal, sympathetic reader.

Apply this to who you’re writing for:

Who are they?

Why do they need this the most out of anyone?

What makes them the person you want to reach out to the most?

Think about what they most need from you.

Think about what they would do if you didn’t write this piece.

It’s helpful to do some visualisation around this, if you’re so inclined. Take a moment to connect to your project and the impulse of inspiration that led you to want to write in the first place.

Then shift focus to find within yourself the one reader who needs this most.

Take the time to meet them.

What are they like? What do they look like? What are they asking you? What do they need help with?

When you have a really clear idea of who your MTR is, and why you’re writing to them, THEN go and write.

Getting to know your MTR for a project is really the hidden fuel pack that can get you writing and keep you writing.

And a final note on your MTR: Write straight to them. Don’t listen to your inner critic or that mad marketing guru in your head who says you have to broaden your appeal and be all things to all people.

Write what you have to say to your Most Treasured Reader.

Do that, and only that, and you’ll have found both your voice, and the audience who truly need you.

Comments: Writing? Who is your MTR? What do they need from you the most?