It strikes me that many academics spend a lot of time and energy worrying about the people who will hate their work.

Even before you’ve written the article, you are imagining someone criticizing it, probably in a particularly mean and hurtful way.

No wonder you have trouble writing.

Write for the people who are eager to hear what you have to say.

The people who said nice things about that presentation you gave at a conference are waiting for the article to come out so they can read it and cite it.

People who have read your previous work would like to read more.

People who have read the kinds of things you read will be interested in your thoughts.

You are not the only one frustrated that this debate doesn’t attend to whatever it is you attend to. Those other frustrated people are waiting eagerly for someone to publish something like what you are about to publish. They will be delighted to see your article in the table of contents of their favourite journal or come up in a search of recently published articles in your field.

You don’t have to convert the unbelievers.

There will be people who disagree with you. There will be people who think your approach is just wrong.

Some of that disagreement will be productive. It will make people think differently. Some of it will not.

It is not your job to convince everyone that you are absolutely and totally right.

You are contributing to a conversation.

Imagine the interlocutors who will engage meaningfully in the conversation.

If you can put a face to one of those people, perhaps of a colleague you had a long conversation with at a conference, then imagine you are writing this for that colleague.

Writing for the people who are already convinced that the work you are doing needs to be done will give your paper a different voice. It will also be more enjoyable to write.

Struggling to make your ideas clear for an audience who is sympathetic to your ideas is a different task than defending your ideas to a hostile audience.

Related posts:

Confidence in the face of criticism

You aren’t trying to win an argument

Communication vs Validation: why are you publishing?

How to stop writing for your harshest critics

Edited 10 October 2016 and again in December 2021.