This all got me thinking about who I'm writing for. For myself? For you? I feel like I'm always trying to satisfy the converted and persuade the dissenters. I want to be applauded by the people that agree and respected by the people who don't and what is up with that? It's not really possible. There are people out there who don't like Beyonce. There are definitely people out there who don't like me. But I don't think I write (just) to get people to like me. I think I really want to be persuasive. I'm convinced that reason can save the world. But it can't...so what am I doing?
This is the point at which I realize that I write for a lot of reasons and not for a lot of people. In the theatre we talk about having a "target audience". If you direct a play for children in elementary schools you make different choices than if you direct a play for adults in a comedy club. This doesn't change who you are as an artist, it just means you take your audience into account. You think about the impact it will have on them. And you accept that the teachers in the classroom will have a different (and maybe worse) experience than the students that you created the performance for. Here's what I know now. That's okay. I don't need to write for everyone. I can decide who it's for. I should decide who it's for. I don't know why this has taken me so long but I'm pretty sure it might change my life. I'm going to try this new thing and I'll let you know how it goes. With my writing (both creative and blog), when I get stuck I'm going to ask myself, who is this for? And maybe that will help me write the next scene or the next sentence.
Moment of honesty: I don't feel like what I've written here is all that useful but I'm posting it anyway because being brave means not being perfect. I think. I'm not really sure on that one, but it sounds like something that could be on a motivational poster.