With Reading, Comes Writing: Whom are they writing for?

Whom to Write for?

This is under the broad heading of "How to Write."
Anyone who has spent any quality time on writing knows there are no rules.
Except the ones we choose to follow. Or the ones we break.
Grammar is also not an exception.

So the very act of putting words on page. It is an act of expression, it is pregnant with a sense of 'otherness'. I need to get the words out! Even if it's only the therapeutic presence of a journal. How many of them start with an invocation of the Witness? "Dear Diary..." or "Dear X. . ."
'X' being one's own self. The part which either needs to be told or needs to do the telling.
So, there is an otherness intrinsically present.

How much does that, or how much should that presence factor into our writings?
Will being aware of this make us better writers?
Should we actively engage with this 'Other' when we write?

Janice Galloway was here in Dundee recently and she said,

" If you're not writing for a reader, I can't imagine what on earth you're doing!"

To this she added something even more interesting,

"You forge the reader from a part of yourself."

It is a gesture, a wave when your drowning in this world, a gesture which says, "This is what it's like over here. Does anybody recognise that?"

And I realised then, she had articulated exactly what had been stirring in my subconscious. I was in the thick of writing essays and I was writing with a voice that would become a nervous squeak if I let my consciousness of the actual readership (Professors!) infiltrate my writings; alternately, the voice would come raspingly out if it was speaking to no one. It would lack conviction.

So I realised that I was writing for me, but not in an implosive way. I as a reader, was on the other end of the page. Waiting for the words, looking to find the hidden signals, and so on.

But this is NOT the only way.

Matthew McVarish was here in October and he said,

"Write the shit that scares you!" 

"If you write something that you don't want anyone to read. . . it's probably good."

And it sounds impressive. This is in line with the theory, and a valid theory it is, that write without ever intending to show it to anyone. And I know excellent practitioners of the art who practice this with great success.

A third perspective is writing as though it's a letter to a friend. An intimate conversation where you have the openness, the freedom to be vulnerable, and silly and profound and very truly yourself.

I suppose the bottom line is simply: Write! Get it out! 

We have to think about writing in a way that makes us more confident.
Will writing for a friend elicit a stronger response?
Will writing as if no one will ever read it make our words bolder?
Or will we choose to carve an ideal reader who is but a reflection of our selves to invoke the very best in us?

There are no rules. How glorious is that!




Whom do you write for?

P.S. This is an entry from my other, now exclusive, blog. I just think that questions on writing and reading are closely related. It is a strange and possibly not very good writer who is not also a close and reverential reader.