Yaaaaaas!

So, a writer submitted a story to Prism & Pen last week. It was very good. He's an older gay guy, not quite retirement age yet but but pretty close. He moved from a bustling eastern city to a desert city out west, and he sometimes writes humorous stories about his experiences.

This latest story was funny! And it was insightful. And it was moving, I mean definitely from the heart.

As an older gay man myself, I chuckled along with him and thought deeply about the implications of what he was writing about.

So, you know, checkmark on writing from the heart, and checkmark on writing for his audience.

But ...

He resisted crafting a title that would specifically reach his audience, telling me he wanted the story to have "universal appeal."

Well, I guess.

There is definitely some universality to a guy in his 60s seeking a romantic relationship, fumbling with apps and trying to figure life out to sometimes amusing consequence.

But when the apps are Grindr and Scruff, and the fumbling has to with gay male culture, and the insights involve humorous, self-deprecating critique of that culture, well ... I think we can figure out who would be most interested in reading.

But he didn't want his title to make it obvious that his story was gay.

Um?

Sure, gay men are a minority, but LOTS of gay men like to read about gay culture. And significant numbers of other people do too.

So, I guess what I'm saying is, you gotta write from the heart, for yourself in a manner of speaking, and you gotta write for your audience, THEN you have to own what you wrote and promote the story for what it is.

Or the audience probably won't find you.