“A wave pursues the thoughtful
dreamer, Inspiration splashing
upon my mind,
makes no effort to withhold
her praises, one comment
at a time. But
I withhold mine.”
I’m never actually certain who my reader is: I confess it to all my teachers who for hundreds of hours drilled into my brain the importance of focusing on “your reader”. Once I even confessed to a teacher, “I’m a selfish writer. I don’t write with an audience in mind. I write for myself.” That used to be true all the time. It’s not anymore.
Now I am very aware of my audience. I can feel them stroking my words, tasting my titles, colluding with my characters. It keeps me up at night! The selfish writing world I used to inhabit somehow got turned upside-down. My words are no longer mine!
In an effort to put a more selfless face on my writing, I hereby submit this blog of my words. I can’t promise it’s safe here in my head. Enter at your own risk. But if you do come, introduce yourself, Reader, because maybe yours will be the face I place in my mind when I focus on my reader in the future. And then I can never again say I’m not certain who you are, because you will have pulled up a chair, put your feet on the coffee table, and taken up residence here in my brain. Sorry about the mess. I hope you’ll stay awhile.
