Writing (and Attracting Readers) as an Introvert
By: Gunnar De Winter
Tags: Audience, Psychology, Writing, Marketing, Introvert

Writing (and Attracting Readers) as an Introvert

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

Introvert issues

Okay, I’ll admit it, I’m an introvert. A very big one. Give me a quiet room over a busy bar any day of the week. (Admit? is this even something you need to ‘admit’? Typical introvert problem…)

I also write. And… I want my writing to be read. But whenever I try to write/say something like “please read my stories/posts”, a shudder runs over my spine that makes my hands shake so much that I can’t do it. (Slight exaggeration there. Poetic license, let’s say.)

So, read my stuff without me asking for it or drawing attention to it. That’s unlikely to work.

As most writers know, you’ve got to market your writing. (There’s that shudder again.) Often, marketing involves drawing attention to yourself, speaking about your work, projecting confidence, networking, and so on. (If you just shuddered too, congratulations, you’re probably an introvert.)

Here’s a paradox, though: many writers — even very good and well-known ones — tend to be introverts.

The resolution of that paradox is that writing and being read are not the same thing. The writing itself is a warm blanket introverts can swaddle themselves in. The ‘getting the writing out there’ is the cold chill that creeps underneath the blanket.

Introvert toolbox

Here are some tools introverts can use in the quest for readers. (A non-exhaustive list, of course. I’m still very much working on this myself. Leave your own thoughts/tips below.)

Write

The easy part. Not really. Writing well is hard, but many introverts like it. It’s not hard for us to want to write. It’s mostly a solitary activity, after all. And it gives us time to caress the words into the shape we like, to craft the story we want to tell.

For being read, you have to write. Introvert writers have got that covered.

The introvert superpower

I like to think that imagination is — in general, on average — an introvert superpower. Certainly, extroverts can have great imaginations too. And yet, there is a bit of a difference. Extroverts are out there, moving, mingling, networking, constantly exposing themselves to many influences. That’s good, but too many influences can dilute the originality of your own ideas.

Introverts, on the other hand, tend to carefully curate what they expose themselves to. This, perhaps, gives our own ideas some more room to grow in unexpected and unexplored directions. Introverts also tend to read quite a lot during their own quality time. Always good for inspiration and flexing the imaginative muscle.

We contain many hidden words and worlds.

Internet magic

The internet can be a great place for introverts, whether you have a blog, write on Medium, or engage with others (on your own terms) on Twitter. You can choose which comments/people you respond to, block trolls, and take some time to tame your thoughts and formulate a response, all of which are harder to do in the non-virtual world.

Who knows, you might meet other introverts (*waves hand*). Many make a habitat for themselves online.

You can also promote your writing relatively unobtrusively. Add a link to your bio, submit to Medium or other publications (which gives you a bit of baseline exposure), use Twitter hashtags when you share a bit of writing without explicitly saying “read my writing”…

Use your senses

For non-introverts, introverts can often seem cold and distant.

How wrong they are.

Most of us are very sensitive. Yes, firstly in the traditional definition of sense. Sound (a big one for me), touch, striking visuals, smells, particular tastes, we pay a lot of attention to them.

(Introversion is not the same as hypersensitivity, but roughly 70% of self-identified hypersensitive people are introverts (*waves again*). How exactly it’s connected — and whether it truly is — remains to be determined.)

But also in the emotional department. Extroverts are emotional too, of course, and the depth of emotional experience is probably the same too, on average. Introverts, though, tend to spend quite a bit of time (over)analyzing things.

Does the following sound familiar? “Why did I say it like that? What did they really mean? Why did they use those words? Should I have spoken up? Why did they do that?”

This can be very annoying —trust me, I know— but it also gives us a great tool for character development (in fiction) or an often unexpected sense of personality (or voice) that comes through in our writing (fiction and non-fiction). What you see is only a small part of what you get.

Be the dark horse, the deep lake. The readers will come.