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# I wish I knew this before I started writing online
- URL: https://www.writerscience.com/show/i-wish-i-knew-this-before-i-started-writing-online-2/
- Published: 2025-10-26T01:14:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-07-09T01:22:32.000Z
- Description: The function of nonfiction writing is not to communicate your ideas; it's to change the ideas of your readers.
- Author: William Fitzpatrick
- Tags: Show

You were told to write about whatever interests you — and your essays went nowhere.  
That's the writer's definition of an essay; the reader's is different — it only works if it helps a specific reader understand something they already want to understand well.  
So the topic has to be theirs, not yours; the goal is understanding, not action; and the value has to be proven by argument.  
So what actually makes something an essay?

That it helps a specific reader understand something better that they already want to understand well.  
Pick a topic that's theirs, not yours; aim for understanding, not action; know where they stand so you can take them further; and give them a real argument — claim, evidence, and the warrant between.  
A new idea isn't knowledge until a reader accepts it, so the reader is the batter, not the icing.