When you are writing it is easy to get carried away, especially when it is a topic that you are passionate about. This is why it is so important to pause and think about your audience. Focusing a message on a specific audience helps you to organize your thoughts and remove unnecessary details. Without this focus, it is easy to get lost along the way.

For example, if I was writing a piece for Forbes magazine it would look completely different from a Buzzfeed article on the same topic. These publications have very different audiences and target demographics. They are both very successful because they focus the message on the correct audience. Decide on your audience before you start writing and you will find that your job becomes much easier.