My Target Audience.

Who am I writing for?

To my dearest friends and followers,

As some of you are probably aware, I have been working on revising my novel, Beyond the Veil. Summer has been a lot more eventful than I anticipated (not that I'm complaining...), which has taken a toll on my book; I confess that I am still within the first quarter of the story. XD

I have shared previously that I am working on more character development and really defining their purpose in the story. I am working on making a consistent theme throughout the story. I am focusing more on the topics that help build the plot. I am rewriting the narrators voice a little bit. Overall, I'm adding a lot more content that I believe will really help my book flourish as it well deserves after all these years!!

I believe that as I was initially writing the story, I was just writing what came to mind. I knew as I was writing it, that some things I would have to make sense of later. I also knew that, as a lover of fairies and the fantastical, etc., I was writing a fantasy novel for me and for me alone. We've all heard it said, to write the book you would want to read. I have definitely accomplished that.

What may be a more difficult question to answer is, "who is your audience?"
So my understanding of younger reading levels, at a glance, is this:

MG - ages 8-12
Upper MG/Tween 11-14
YA - ages 13-18

Based on that, I haven't known someone until recently within those age ranges who:

likes to read
likes to read fantasy
likes to read about female characters

I really haven't known who my audience is. I probably still won't truly know until I have beta readers and gain some feedback. 
Based on a few things from my book, I know it's not MG, as the story as a darker tone to it, there is death, religion is mentioned, and an old-fashioned fairy tale-like writing style is used.
It does NOT consist of swear words, violence (aka fighting scenes, blood, etc.), sex, or a complex plot. My best guess is that it's Upper MG/Tween. Keep in mind that you won't find this category on a shelf, it just means that it's more mature than your typical MG book, or less mature than your standard YA novel.

Though I don't know how the book will be marketed or who the target audience will be, I have only recently begun to feel like I have been writing for someone other than myself.
While I believe it is important to write for oneself, I seem to also find it valuable to write for someone else. That audience, or that one person can be made up, who you think will like your story. Or it can be someone you know, someone you know will love to read your finished work.

It's so easy to feel discouraged while we reread our work. Why did I write this? What if it's not good enough? What if, what if, what if...
I have been continuously working on my book and it feels really refreshing as I look at it now and keep "my" audience in mind. It's actually someone I met nearly two years ago, but have only recently spent time with. She's 12 years old, is a gifted gymnast, loves animals, fantastic creatures and reading fantasy. Brianna, thank you for inspiring me. Hopefully in less than a year from now, you'll have a new book to read.

Stay awesome, stay weird.

Yours truly,
Me