On one of my fascinations, Bob Hicok saying how it is for me.
I don’t think about “my” audience. It would be fun to have an audience. I’d keep it in the garage. I don’t know how anyone could write with a group of people in mind. It’s difficult enough to rummage around in my own head, let alone estimate how my words will enter another life. Writers should be good at sensing where readers will be more or less confused, angry, emotionally or intellectually involved, in evaluating the content of their writing in general terms. But to think about readers while writing is to invite the hypothetical into the process in a way that stops me from being open to the actual, to myself.
4 Comments
I like that quote. It makes me think of the image of someone absorbed with tinkering in the garage playing with all the pieces fitting together so it works, not wondering if the neighbors behind him will think it works. Actors, too, need to focus on their character and get off-balance if they start thinking of their audience. Whose the audience? Potentially many different people with many different likes and dislikes. Who said the quote “Write the book you want to read”? That’s where our center should be.
Thanks for your comments, Gloria. I don’t know who said but the idea feels right.
I like that quote, too. Mainly I like anything that Bob Hicok puts out there.
I agree, I don’t think you can write for an audience, that would be so stifling. Writing is definitely about being open to the actual, and to the self. Great quote.