Knowing Your Audience

As artists and writers, it's so easy to get sucked into creating the world in your head that we forget to ask ourselves, "but do my readers want this?" This is something I learnt the hard way some years back.

I drafted a mature comic for my readers (and it wasn't even graphic in its sensual content) and it flopped way too hard because I just assumed that's what an audience would want from a quote-en-quote "mature romance comic".

Now let's help ourselves out of here to ensure none of us encounter such a misfortune once again. Understanding who will be drawn to our webcomic is crucial to tailoring our stories and making sure it connects with the right readers.

• (If you're starting from this article, you can follow along but we'd recommend starting our quick "Webcomic Fundamentals roadmap" to up your comic and writing game. This is one of the articles in the series.)
  
• Since we're building something as we explore the series, we decided to use a mock sci-fi/romance story about a couple living in a futuristic world where dreams are sold and bought.

Identify core demographics

Every story has a group of people it will most likely appeal towards. You can group these people based off age, gender, class etc. These groups will help you write knowing who you're telling the story to. It's like creating a mock audience where you write with them in mind.

For our mock story let's try to explore some demographics that would probably love the story

Age:

Our story is likely to appeal to readers aged 18 - 35. This demographic is tech savvy, enjoys exploring intricate themes and is often engaged with complex relationships and moral dilemmas. This group won't primarily enjoy puppy love since their current relationships are way too complex in real life, so you have to give them substance. They are equally smart thus your plot has to present thought provoking issues or those moral dilemmas. You can't write a story that feels like it's meant for kids and expect them to stick.

Gender and Interests:

While our story is likely to appeal more to all genders, it particularly resonates with those interested in science fiction, romance and ethical issues; possibly related to technology. From this we can deduce that readers who enjoy character-driven narratives with emotional depth and thrilling plots will find our story captivating. Then we can start writing with them in mind.

Story Elements

Most readers are usually drawn to intricate plots and well developed characters. Since your target audience is primarily of an older bracket, your characters won't get away with lackluster development like those in children's tales. A character can't be evil just because they're evil (unless they're Dr.Doofenshmirtz from Phineas and Ferb, he gets a pass.)

Think Thanos who wanted to get rid of half the population in the universe so that the other half could live in a world of abundance, or Zuko who wanted to catch the Avatar so he could finally have his father's love back. Give them sauce you know! Your readers appreciate narratives where personal relationships are tested by larger, societal issues and the story has high stakes, emotional depth and thought provoking themes.

In our example since this is also a romance comic, we could have one character do something with the dreams of another, maybe to manipulate their relationship without the other character's consent, leading to the story discussing an everyday issue your readers face like manipulation in relationships.

By clearly defining your audience, you ensure your webcomic speaks directly to those who will most appreciate its unique blend of sci-fi intrigue and romance drama. Understanding your readers helps you create content that not only entertains, but also engages them on a deeper level making your webcomic/manga a must read in their library.

With these development concepts for our comic done. We can confirm to have drafted an idea that we know people will most probably want to read and can move on to the next phase of our comic journey; creating an outline for your story. This will help us shape our plot, develop our characters and set up those thrilling twists that will have our readers hooked. For that, check out our next article next week,.

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