Doing hair, I quickly realized that my style wasn’t for everybody. Some people liked my work, some didn’t. And no matter what I did, the ones who didn’t like my work would never like it. It was a hard lesson to learn–that not everybody would love what I did to their hair. That I couldn’t win over everyone.
Guess what? It’s the same with writing. Not everybody will be a fan of my writing. But one thing I learned early on with hair, was to attract the kind of client that would love my work. Say for instance, I love to do soft, flowing long hair, then I would work hard to attract those kind of clients. (Actually, I did like doing hair like that. A lot.) I wouldn’t bother trying to win over someone who liked their hair short with electric blue spikes, now would I? It would be a waste of my time.
With writing, we won’t be able to win over readers that don’t like our genre. If we write science fiction, then we are writing to people who like science fiction, not romances. We have to find the readers that like our kind of writing–whatever kind that may be.
I’m still learning my style, finding my voice as a writer. But I know the kind of reader I want to attract. It’s a saying in the hair business that: you attract the kind of client that you are. It means that if I’m a professional business-type stylist, then those are the clients I attract. If I’m covered in tattoos and love heavy metal, then those are the clients I attract. In essence, we write the kind of books that we would read ourselves. Not everyone may like it, but the people who do–will love it. So keep writing, and the readers you attract will be the readers you’ll come to love.
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