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April 11, 2016
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Know Your Audience
By Linda Wilson
Getting to know your target audience can be as fun as it is enlightning.
The focus of this post is on children, but the ideas set forth can work
for any audience.
General Resources
No matter what your association is with children, a good way to reach
them is by keeping a scrapbook-style binder. The binder can be organized
in sections. Ideas for topics can be:
- Articles
- Research: Three excellent resources are https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/,
where interesting facts can be found on major historic events and
current issues of many countries and facts on birth rates, child labor
information, children under the age of 5 years underweight, found on the
home page under "People and Society;" http://www.census.gov/main/www/access.html under "Easy Stats" for topics such as Housing, People and Education; and the InfoTrac Periodical and Reference Database at your local library, to research sources such as academic journals, books and magazines.
- Photos and pictures cut out of magazines and ads to pose as story characters
- Kids' favorite books and pastimes
- Notes on snippets of conversation, the way your audience dresses, funny and poignant incidences, etc.
- Mining your own childhood experiences, the people you have known and your memories: Occasionally
when I browse through personal journals that I've kept through
the years, I put subject notations on post-its and stick the post-its on
the sides, like tabs; this way the information is easily accessible
while composing. Also, I created a photoscrapbook of my growing-up years
to jog my memory, and have found how true it is that the story is in
the pictures.
- Index on the subjects and locations of data saved on your computer.
Zeroing in on Kids' Needs
An excellent resource for understanding all aspects of writing for children is Writing for Children & Teenagers,
by Lee Wyndham. Part of Wyndham's philosophy speaks to those writers
who may not be "up" on the latest fads and trends (though many terrific
and entertaining writers are). She wrote that writers can focus instead
on the the universality of people's basic needs, young and old, and how
these needs never change; summarized from Wyndam's book here:
- The need to love and be loved: No one ever outgrows the need for love. Stories of deep and moving significance can be woven around this subject . . .
To read the rest of this article (and share it), please go to:
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PERMISSION TO REPRINT
Sorry, this article CAN'T be reprinted!
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The Article Writing Doctor
Your Content Writing Prescription for Home and Small Business
Karen Cioff, Writing for Children
Editing, Rewriting, Ghostwriting, and lots of tips
Email: kcioffiventrice [at] gmail [dot] com
I'm an affiliate for some of the products I recommend. I only tell you about products I've checked out.
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