I have been giving feedback to a friend about a new blog she is participating in. There are several contributors and right now while they are already adding content, they are also wrangling over the look and feel of the website as well as the explanatory text for potential visitors. My continuing comment to them has been: "Who is your audience?" after you answer that question then I ask: "Do you think you have reached them?"
Insider comments and ambiguous text at the beginning invariably means you lose some readers at the outset, which is fine if you really want only the insiders who "get it." The problem is too many cliches and everyone begins to feel like they are reading text without the secret decoder ring. Just because you know it and even consider it common knowledge doesn't make it so.
Always, always, always be considerate of your audience otherwise you are writing to yourself and as I have told my agent many times: "I don't need to write the stories down for myself, I have already experienced them many times over. I will only take the energy to put them on paper if someone else might benefit from them."
So today a wee bit of un-decoded message from me today, all of it contained in the artwork at the top. Just enjoy the picture, all but one of you. I will say that I really miss the fall season, I am going to attempt to plan my wanderings better so that I may be in the midwest or northeast for as many falls as possible in the future. The colors, smells and temperament of the season just resonates with my soul. I really enjoy the Bay Area all year round but the fall simply lacks in birch, maple and oak.
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art: Robin Rose
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2 comments:
I wonder just how many people are thinking....ahhh....I get it...he is telling me "......"
: )
The northeast was spectacular ths fall......too cold now...trying to head south soon.
a fieldtrip to see the changing of the colors is definitely in order. although I must say, that one place near you to get a fix is the drive up claremont avenue looking up the avenue toward the hills. berkeley does have some color!
as for the other part, yah. agreed. it's a lot to tangle with.
she wants audience, being a performer and all. I'll let her deal with that accessibility thing. I'm more interested in being inside the process...
for anyone interested in what on earth I'm talking about, see beit.malkhut.org — kaddish in two-part-harmony. and the word 'kaddish' already knocks out most of the planet's population. time for another glossary on my own blog!
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