Monday, May 25, 2009

Is Anybody Out There?

One of the top lessons any writing teacher plans for her students is on audience. "Consider your audience," we say. "Who are they and what do they want to know? Choose your words, details, and examples for them."

And, so, as it turns out, the most astute students try to write for their teacher, the one person they are sure will read their writing. (English teachers, we see the irony, right? How many pieces does the number one reader skim at the end of a very long day, desperately looking for something to comment on? Or worse, something to criticize? It's not that we don't care, kids, it's just that there are so many things to read...)

Audience is a tricky lesson, though. When my students share their writing with each other, the silliest, grossest, and most childish stuff is usually the most popular. I roll my eyes as I circulate through the room, but if they are writing for their peers-- 11- and 12-year-olds in this particular case-- how can I possibly be surprised? The audience LOVES it, even if I do not. What's the lesson there?

I don't know who I thought my audience was when I started writing and posting here. I guess I just didn't follow my own lesson plan. In the beginning, I was surprised that anyone was reading at all. Since then, I've pressed the link onto some and given it out upon request to others. I don't disillusion myself that a whole lot of people read what I write, but I know that some do, because they are kind enough to tell me so, either in writing or in person. As my audience has grown, so has my consideration of them evolved: do I really want to write that, if I know so-and-so may read it?

About a month ago, I gave the link to my blog to my nephew, and he took the time to read it. He wrote a very considerate reaction to it on his own blog. He's a thoughtful guy with some interesting friends, and I have reason to believe that some of them have taken the time to look at my blog, too. That's really cool, but it makes me think about what I write... many of these people are students in my school.

But, a blog is public, and I although I knew that when I started, I didn't understand it in quite the same way I do now. Clearly, there is a balance between honesty and discretion that any published writer must know how to negotiate (or learn to do so quickly), that a novice may not consider fully. What impact might such a recognition have on a writer? A friend asked me this today. I want to say, nothing of substance, but I'll have to wait and see.

3 comments:

  1. I hate "audience" in the Englishy world. When my students write for this reader, their language turns either flowery or stilted, using $25 words when a 10-cent word would do. It's a big thing, this audience business, but I had it drummed out of me in Creative Writing classes. Write authentically was the mantra there, let the writing have gravitas, weight, let it "work." So I gave up writing for audience in my fiction.

    Ah, but blogging is another story. I am inhibited terrifically by audience. The blog you find me on, PenInkPaper, was a response to that worry of "hurting someone's feelings," a common refrain when I talk to other beginning writers. I won't say anything on my more well-known blog to up-end relationships, shine a light into dark corners. It's crippling.

    So when Slicing came along, I began this new blog, which is my own private space.

    I know now why many writers turn to fiction. It cloaks the truth, keeps the writer at a distance.
    E.

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  2. Hi -- I came to your blog via your nephew's blog, which I came to via my son's best friend's blog. So I am an utterly random audience member -- perhaps a stand-in for all the other parents out here.

    More important, I think, is why I stayed -- for your insight into our education system (or the ways that the best teachers work around it) and for your grace with language. Thank you!

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  3. I still ready your blog, Tracey, ever since we did the Slice together. I enjoy the way you write...T-Dawg

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