You want to capture your reader immediately, or perhaps let him or her gently grow a relationship with your main character, unless it is the reader who is supposed to feel that he or she is directly talked to. It all depends on what the goal with your writing is. Most of all it is a decision what to write, when, how, where and why and to whom. This becomes the foundation for what is referred to as the communicative platform that a copywriter uses together with the art director and project manager to create a message, a message to sell a product or service, but also to create a belonging to a concept, image or have an effect on an opinion. To the reader to make him or her do something, such as sign up, buy, order or vote. Or discuss the topic. We do this by consciously choosing the words. How we write things can shape the meaning and give the words an emotional charge that make us interpret the writing accordingly. One can say that it's as if each word has its own taste in our mouth and therefore must be chosen in a way that brings forth the kind of reaction we want.
How we present this message is part of the experience of a reader which all is taken into account by the team in an advertising firm, and should also be taken into account by newspaper and magazine editors as well as book publishers. It is a matter of choosing font, size, layout, paper and images. Putting this together with the writing, creates what we in the business refer to as a synergy effect, that also is thought out in advance. This whole process together with coming up with the idea, is what we get paid for, while the cost of placing it in the media is usually paid directly to the channel.
So, when you read something someone else wrote, ask yourself what went into that text. Did she or he use a specific knowledge coming from an education about a topic, or a personal experience, or the experience of someone else that he or she talked to? What does the sender of the message want you to do? Or was it written on a whim? By looking at someone else's profile, blog or book, and copied to make it sound good next to a photo? Professional writers never do, and nor do people with integrity. Become one!