February 6, 2009
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Pardon me whilst I spit upon the face of your writing proffessor.
Ever since you first learned how to trace over letters in kindergarten writing class… er…
Ever since you first started spelling your name by yourself… er…
Ever since you learned what a sentence was… er…
Ever since you wrote your first essay… yeah your first essay, you probably have been told some almost-smart sounding horse feces like “write with your target audience in mind.” While this degree of brainwashing may not be deliberate (seeing as how for all your teachers knew, they were helping to “guide you on the path of success”), it certainly has some extremely negative drawbacks on developing any level of creative growth or individuality. Every single time that you feel the need to rewrite or censor something because you don’t feel that it would keep in line with your alleged “target audience”, your piece loses that much creative spirit and uniqueness.
When I first started writing on Xanga, I didn’t have any audiences whatsoever. Much less one with some degree of metaphorical bulls-eye painted across their chests that I was somehow supposed to land a direct hit on with what I am presuming to be “loaded” words (har, har). No, I simply wrote, and didn’t give a damn about who was reading it. Eventually, some poor souls inadvertently happened upon my site and it began to attract a mild degree of attention, and even got featured a couple of times. I feel, however, that more often than not, the simple fact that my degree of inconsistency so closely resembles that of the bald spots on your Uncle’s receding hairline sharply throttles the amount of frequent viewers that I would attract. The remaining readership (I refrain from using the word fanbase on anything Xanga related due to the sheer ludicrousy of the notion) is even still hardly at par with every single entry I make. If I honestly wrote for any one particular group of readers, I think that my muse would have such a drop in self-esteem that it’d be likely to catch the last train for the cost on the day that the music died. But I digress… actually, no I don’t. Hey audience, here is my middle finger. Allow it to be my pledge to you that I will never conform to your expectations because how could you really even have any expectations in the first place if you hadn’t been exposed to something new to begin with.
(too soon?)
The only target audience that you need to keep in mind, is your own self. Say what you want to hear yourself saying. If it is interesting or exciting to you, there has to be at least ONE other person out there that will also align to your views (trust me, you are not that special). That is unless you are this guy…
Until next time, good luck with life.
Days since last day off: 17
Days since last went to gym: 0
Days since last ignorant customer: 0
Days this year that life’s been good to me: 37P.S. I submitted this post for featured, because I haven’t done so in a very long time. Interestingly enough, their new submission system states (and I quote) “If you’re submitting your own, add a question at the end of the post directed towards the general audience.” In short… I’LL BE DAMNED. My question toward the general audiance… Will you be too?
Comments (19)
Thank you for refusing to write for your audience. Its terribly boring to only read things I agree with
Every time I think of writing for a particular audience here, my creativity gets more blocked up than Aunt Maude without her Ex-Lax. I subsequently wind up on a hiatus. I salute you back, sir, in hopes that you will keep writing for you.
I wish I could beat two trees.
Fuck, that kid’s got ill skillz yo, I’LL BE DAMNED.
Lol, great post =) And I’ll be damned right there with you, of course!
This is a really great post! (I’m my best audience)
I beat two trees once in fourth grade during Play Day.
You’re just too cool for school and for questions to bring in an audience. Some call it damned. I call it cool.
@wherethefishlives - You’re amazing.
If you tried to write for any one group, your muse would bitch slap you. Then, Jesus would cry.
Cry like a little bitch.
guess i was brainwashed from my college writing class when i was improving on my style. my writing has improved drastically by bits, but i’m just slipping back into writing for what i want to write about. i’m just able to flesh it out better now
If I listened to my inner muse I’d have 8 different blogs targeted at different audiences. *shrug* I put my muse on MUTE. It IS a little sad when you think about it…
yeah. i’ve been damned for such a long time… especially since my posts are long. and then there’s that question at the end thing. oh xanga… =(
but then again… i never wrote for audiences.
Dear kind sir,
I am your target audience. Fortunately for you, like most people in a target audience, I am already a fan. Thus, even if you try to divert from the norm, it would still be from you, thus I would love it. You could write “I hate you, stop bothering me” for 10 entries in a row. Us, your readers would respond with “oh, how crazy and original, man he’s really thinking outside the box. If, on the other hand, you decided to give us high quality original content, we would continue to shrug and go “meh, that’s what we’ve come to expect” even if it took you several hours work to produce it. Even if each time you raise the bar higher and higher until each entry becomes an epic towards which only a Pulitzer or a Nobel Prize in writing could top it, we would still label it as slightly above mediocrity. We do this because we love you.
Eternally yours,
your retarded target audience.
I don’t write with myself in mind. I just think of what my dog would like to read and it all falls in place…I’m sure you do the same. Btw: starfish rape? interesting idea no? They have those little mouths and stuff.
@Etrail - :(
well, if Sandy approves, that it certainly can’t be wrong
I write for the Goverment. I don’t get paid, I’m forced at gunpoint. Everyone else seems to enjoy it for some reason.
Xangalebrities are stealing my posts!
The new submission system for featuring sucks. You can quote me on that.
hahaha fuck you =)