2003-10-21 - 12:47 p.m.
Who should one write for?
I had a conversation with two work mates of mine over this topic. Their option was that writing should be for the reader, not a self gratification process for the writer. There are many reasons on both sides, but one thing keeps coming back to me. That I hate reading plastic writing, the type that you can so easily tell was written for someone who just isn’t me. And so at least if the person had been writing for themselves, then it would hold some type of truth, a little bit of them. That seed would make it interesting, even if the plot was stale. I believe that this is the difference between writing art, and writing print.
During the conversation with my workmates I imaged what they would say if pictures were painted for the observer, and not the painter.
As a creator it is impossible to know the observer. One can only create for the image your brain creates in your head of what they are. This is the same argument used against news papers which say that they are only writing the stories that people want to read. That one of my work mates was such a person, writing articles for a public he never met, and never heard from adds weight to my irritation.
Writing should being new thoughts, new ideas to life. It should challenge you, the reader. And I agree it should be read over and edited for by the author as a reader. But the first writing should be purely for the author, as a writer.
