Welcome back writers, to the AI-free oasis! It’s Monday, and that means that once again it’s time for your weekly installment of Being a Better Writer, a series that any explanation of becomes a tautology. And, if I understand the term correctly, an analytic statement.

But you’re not here to discuss semantics. You’re here to talk writing! And talk writing we shall!

Though if you’d like to catch up on last week’s news, as well as understand more why I referred to the site as an “oasis” above, I’d recommend checking out last week’s news post. We talk about some other stuff to, so if you weren’t aware that there’s a project underway to get an Axtara – Banking and Finance audiobook made, well …

But no, that news is for those news posts. We’re here for Being a Better Writer, and we’ve got an interesting topic to discuss today. It’s … a bit of an odd one, yes. But it’s also a complicated one.

See, here’s the thing: If I were to go to reddit and post this question on a writing or reading sub, it almost instantly would dissolve into disagreement. I know this because I’ve seen it happen organically without anyone even asking. I’ve watched as people dismissively tell other posters that because they liked something but didn’t like something else that they were reading for “all the wrong reasons” because “real readers know that ____ is what you should really care about.”

Uh-huh. Obviously this is getting into a topic we’ve discussed heavily in the past (so heavily that it has a dedicated tag), IE audience. And yes, we’re touching on that, but I don’t want to dwell on it. Additionally, I’m not speaking of genre here, because any genre can focus on these “blanks” to one degree or another (nothing demonstrates this better than a suitably varied Sci-Fi anthology).

But I can’t avoid that yes, today’s topic does touch on audience a bit. And we’re going to discuss it, but only briefly. Because while audience matters, what matters more for our discussion today is this question: what do you want the reader to be driven by?

Hit the jump, and let’s see if we can find you an answer.