Published October 12, 2024

Writing and editing will be lumped together for the purposes of this post. It’s about the “written word.”

The best decision I ever made about my writing was also the easiest one, if it was even a decision. I wrote for the reader, not for other writers. With my writing days behind me, I edit for the reader, not for other editors.

A friend reminded me that Don Draper said it in the “Mad Men” world of advertising: “Stop writing for other writers.” I heard that voice long before the show was conceived. And the only thing I was selling was the idea that maybe the reader should read the next sentence after the current one, and then the next. That’s it.

I knew I wasn’t good enough to write for other writers. I’d never be good enough to write for other writers. If that’s who you are writing for, you will never be good enough. I didn’t want to spend my life unattaining.

A long time ago, a friend and co-worker’s dad, a regular reader of our paper, said about me, “(She) writes for the common man.” It remains one of my favorite compliments. Readers were buying and reading the paper. Other writers weren’t buying and reading the paper. Don Draper would understand, even though I never wrote advertising copy for an airline.

Photo of woman writing outside by Silatip via Shutterstock.

Featured image of person writing by gowithstock via Shutterstock.