When you're pondering over whether to keep a line in a poem, do you ever ask yourself if the editor of "Poetry Review" would like it? Or perhaps you wonder what your poetry workshop colleagues would say? I can imagine people disliking this, describing it as "writing for the market". It sounds grubby, but in the poetry world, "market" doesn't have capitalist implications. Essentially, the market is composed of your peers. Pre-empting their criticism is better than belatedly learning from a history of failure.
The phrase "target audience" also has unsavoury associations. For at least part of the writing process I have a target audience in mind. It comes into play for example when I'm wondering whether to spell out an allusion. This "target audience" is perhaps nothing more than a personification of my inner critic - self-criticism is no bad thing.
Perhaps you just enjoy writing for its own sake. It gives you pleasure, the way that singing in the bath gives pleasure to some people. You might decide that you enjoy performing, so you try reading at an open-mic. You don't go down well. You go to workshops and soon gain the impression that your style is old fashioned. You can't get into magazines. If you were really writing for the fun of it (being "true to yourself") such a reception shouldn't deter you from writing on, but there might have been a lingering hope that you were an undiscovered talent. Of course, if you don't keep up with the work of your peers it's no surprise that your quality assurance isn't like theirs. You don't read other people's stuff in case it affects the uniqueness, purity, and authenticity of your voice. But where did you get your voice from if not from other poets? By reading other poets you can discover your influences - maybe even break free.
Singing in the bath may mean that dishes are left unwashed, but you wash them later. Self-indulgence is only a problem when others are involved. I think people need to be somewhat public spirited at workshops if they're going to get the most from them - interested in others' work and open to the possibility of changing one's own poems.
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I write for myself. I have no readership in mind except for those few poems I’ve written specifically for someone. I do publish, however, for others. Personally I’ve no great need to see my name in print. I can’t say it displeases me when I do but it’s not vitally important to me. That whole side of it is quite separate to the writing. The writing is digging; the publishing, trying to flog what I’ve dug up. Sometimes I dig up bottle caps, rarely (very rarely) gold coins. Of course the nice thing about being a writer as opposed to, say, an artist, is we can sell or give away what we’ve written and still get to keep it. To my right as I write this is a painting I did for my second wife. When I left I took it with me. Although I gave it her I never truly let go of it.
ReplyDeleteThe notion of a target audience means choosing my words and there aren’t enough words out there as it is without restricting myself further. (Yes, I know there’s a couple of hundred thousand in English but you wouldn’t believe how many times I construct sentences that need words that don’t exist yet.) To my mind my ideal reader is one who’s willing to put themselves in my shoes rather than expecting me to mollycoddle them.
Yes, the writing and marketing are 2 very different games. I think my marketing persona has the freedom to muck about with what the digger has passed on so that it's easier to flog. The writer rewrites to better communicate with himself. The marketeer rewrites to better communicate with others.
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