“I don’t want to add to the noise.” Should you let this belief stop you?

As a teenager, my musical tastes gravitated to pop music. At the top of the list was an Nsync and Britney Spears collaboration. The limited edition McDonald’s promo drifted out of either my headphones or room’s door daily. (I have better taste in books than music, I promise.)

I wore my family thin with the upbeat chorus of Bye, Bye, Bye, so much so that my dad would ask me on the regular: “How can you listen to that noise?!”

Noise? Justin laying out his soul with the heart-wrenching “Oh babbyyyyy” wasn’t noise, dad. I loved the techno beats and smooth crooning. But even more than that, these #1 requests lifted my spirits, made me feel cool. Really, it was just fun music that made me feel good.

I bet for many of us, however, we’re afraid of hearing the same noise complaint about our own work. We’re afraid of adding to the racket of the Internet. You might have thought: Aren’t there already enough people talking about this? Me adding to the conversation will just make it loud.

To be fair, the Internet is ear-splitting. Reading the news or scrolling through social media feels like when Dwight set off a false fire alarm and panicked the whole office. (Anyone else both cringe and laugh through that entire Office scene?) Angela’s throwing her cat, Oscar’s climbing through the roof, Michael is hurling a projector out a window. It’s chaos.

But this Internet volume amplifies only because we’re listening to voices we don’t need or want. Nsync’s producers did not have my 40-something-year-old dad in mind when they mixed together their songs. Britney, Justin, and crew aimed at teenage girls. So they tailored their music for that demographic. And suddenly, it wasn’t just noise anymore. 

This is why I preach from the hilltops that you need to know your ideal reader.

When you know what your people want to hear, you’re helpful. And when you’re helpful, you’re not intensifying the noise. Your writing shifts to feel-good music (or really, words) that people want and need to hear. And that’s the goal, right? To impact others, not just ourselves.

If you’ve got a good idea of your ideal reader, keep going.