By: DeAnna Lynn Sanders @deannalsanders

It’s the question I start with every time I begin writing a new piece.

It’s the question my journalism professors taught me to ask as I approached writing a news or feature story.

The last few years, I’ve been a content writer for nonprofit organizations. Each time I received a request for a new story, I asked the fundamental questions:

• Who is your audience?
• Who do you expect to read this piece?
• What type of person is he or she?

When I focus on one person instead of a general lump of faceless people, my words will be sharper and make more of an impact on her as she reads and moves her to feeling and action.

Knowing who will read my words makes a difference in how I write the words and shape them into a story. Are they young? Old? Mothers? Empty-nesters? Suffering from a type of disease? What is it about your audience you need to know to make sure you are writing in such a way they will receive well what you are offering them?

Makes a difference.

I am writing for the nonprofit audience, but I also want to please my clients. I want to make them happy and give them exactly what they asked for. Of course, I should. They are the ones paying me to write what they want. They had become my audience.

When I write my blog each week, I think of who will receive this piece in their inbox. I select words of encouragement, help, and hope for A Good Word Wednesday. I want to serve and help those who need good words that Wednesday. I prayerfully consider the word that brings spiritual nourishment to the people on my list. Who will be the person who clicks to read words about value, margin, generosity, etc? I craft my words for my readers. When I get ready to press send, I pray and ask God to lead my readers to click and open A Good Word because they know they will find the hope and help they need in that moment.

This past year, as I organized my writings into book form, I thought about who would be drawn to the book titled: Unseen People: Sharing Light and Life With Your Neighbors and the Nations. As I am preparing my launch schedule, I am considering a plan that will reach specific people. Will the cover attract their curiosity? Who is that person ready to click Pre-order or Order Now? I keep that person in mind as I update my website. And when I am a guest on a podcast. As that person takes their time to listen, I consider, how can I make their life better? How can I encourage them to see the needs of those around them? How can they tangibly share the light of Christ with those neighbors next door and those strangers on the other side of the world?

These people are the readers of my words. Of course, they are my writing audience. But I do have other audiences in my life beyond my work.

I want to please family members and help them do whatever they need — babysit the grandchildren, go on a shopping trip or purchase a particular type of snacks my granddaughters liked. I want to please them. Of course, I do. They are my audience and the people closest to me.

I’ve also noticed in my people-pleasing-type-of-personality, that I want to honor pastors and members in my church — to be the best Sunday School teacher I could be. The best discipleship group leader I could be. The best missions team leader I could be. I want to please them. Of course, I do. We are doing life together through our church. It’s important. As I focus on doing my best for them, they have become my audience.

As I look at this list, it compels me to say, “This is making me old and tired.” I can’t keep up. I can’t please them all — the readers; the children; the church members.

If they all are my audience, I live for their approval and applause. For encouragement from them. For a “Good job, Mom. Thank you.”

This I know. My number one audience is not people. It’s God. Always. For Him alone, I do what I do. Whether it is writing, leading, or caring for my family, I should live as if my ultimate goal is always to please Him first. The challenge for all of us is to pause at the beginning of each day and offer a humble prayer: “Thank you God for the gift of yourself. Thank you for who you are. Thank you for the gift of this good day. How can I honor you today? How can I make you known? How can I serve you today?”

“Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people.” Ephesians 6:7 NIV

Who is your audience? Who do you serve to please today?

DeAnna answered the call to write in high school and she hasn’t stopped many, many years later. She has written in journals and notebooks. On typewriters and clunky desktop computers. And on sleek silver laptops and apps on her phone. She crafts communication pieces for nonprofits through her business DLS: Communicator for Global Good. She fills her weekly newsletter, A Good Word Wednesday, with bite-sized slices of life from her own experiences and from those she has met around the world. DeAnna is in the editing phase of her book, Unseen People: Sharing Light and Life with Your Neighbors and the Nations. It will be published by Ambassador International.

DeAnna has served as a church missions minister and worked in a global nonprofit as Indonesian Country Director and as Director of Communications. She has communication degrees from Ouachita Baptist University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

DeAnna lives in Duncan, Oklahoma with her husband, Johnny, and their two Fox Red Labradors. She loves long walks and then relaxing on her deck, sipping flavorful coffee and savoring one of the several books she enjoys reading at the same time.

You’re invited to visit DeAnna’s writer’s website: https://deannalynnsanders.com/ and to subscribe to her weekly newsletter https://dlscommglobal.substack.com/. Find her on Twitter https://twitter.com/deannalsanders and on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/DeAnnaLSandersauthor/