TARGET YOUR AUDIENCE
This week’s episode of Reel Time began as a vague notion that as a writer I should know my potential reader. ‘Target your audience’ as a catch phrase, has its roots in economic reasoning. Not one of my strong points.
I was vaguely pondering how I was supposed to know the whims of millions, possibly even billions of potential readers, when I found myself over thinking the highly stimulating verb.
At the time, and for no apparent reason (that I am willing to share), I had been poking around my dress-ups. Then before I knew what was up and what was floppy, I was brandishing a phallic symbol whilst strutting bow-legged and sideways through the scrub, wearing my over-the-knee boots and channelling ‘Annie, Go Get Your Gun’.
Midway through my little romp I had swapped my utensil for a compound bow and uploaded visions (ie. transvisioning – there’s that word again– remember it now) from a completely different setting. Suzanne Collin’s Hunger Games came to mind, as did Tolkien’s dishy elves.
That’s when it hit me…
An audience sets the targets …
- Mystery
- relevant fantasy
- honest romance
- dramatic flashes in stark contrast to epic wonderment
- glimpses of potential horrors if goodness does not prevail
- authentic characters that carry our collective torch for truth, justice and the Star Ways
… Because the eternal story will always have an audience.
Jasmine Neutron Star is the first book of the Star Ways Chronicles. It is a novel most suitable for young adult and teenager readers of speculative, fantasy / science fiction, urban fantasy. It is a humorous account of Jasmine’s first adventure into the world of light – Quanta. She is a spirem – a new kind of superhero – and perfect for the sphere of Terra.