For tonight's blog, please read the following and then share your thoughts on Lanzbaum's position.
On Writing
by Leon Lanzbaum
All writing is a form of prayer.
-- John Keats
Graduate school: "We must write for our audience," says my rhetoric-and-writing professor. "We do not write for ourselves," he says. On this point, he is adamant, a rock. And on this same point, an ineffable tumult stirs within me as I sense most writers in academe submit to this professor's prescription, a prescription I'm not ready to swallow. As a student of the self-satisfied writers--Faulkner, Didion, White etc.--I learned the writer comes first. Not that writers shouldn't visualize their readers, but when purpose yields to audience, words lose their innocence. The writer holds back, does not give his or her all, or even worse, gives too much, and that's dishonest writing.
So what do we do as academic writers? Should we write for ourselves or write for an audience? I'll admit, I played the game. During my rhetoric-and-writing stint, I gave my professor what he wanted. I wrote for him! And my essays were the most antiseptic, fallow pieces I have ever written. But such is the nature of academic writing. It marks scholarly territory, territory devoid of the first person singular, territory that, for the most part, forces the writer to kill, or at least, hide his or her identity.
As someone who cares about writing, I loathe the writing of most rhetoric-and-writing departments. I abhore passive sentences and colorless verbs and narcoleptic nouns. I'm allergic to textbook writing and the convoluted, meandering language of lawyers and literary theorists. Writing is communication, the inside of one person speaking to another person. Writing is not a contest in whose word is bigger! I say that if we satisfy ourselves, an audience will find us. Read the words of Henry David Thoreau or Ernest Hemingway or Sandra Cisneros and you'll find writers who write for themselves yet still speak to the world.
But let’s face it, whether you're in English 101 or you write for a national magazine, you do write for some sort of audience--maybe your editor, maybe your readers, maybe your rhetoric-and-writing professor.
The Key: Respect the man or woman at the upper end of the keyboard, you!
Don't lose who you are. Lose yourself and you lose a unique voice, a voice that will never pass this way again.
So let's see what you can do to keep your unique voice, to write for yourself, yet still write for an audience.
Freewriting
Freewriting is a great way to get started on any paper.
Begin with the basic idea or concept of what you want to write about. If you don't have a basic idea, that's ok. An idea will come to you as you freewrite.
Now, set your timer for seven minutes. Some say ten minutes is best. It's up to you. I find that the shorter amount of time doesn't allow too many educated thoughts to invade the intuitive mindset you're about to enter. This excercise is not about what's right. It's about putting your educated mind aside, giving yourself up to the universe, and allowing your cosmic AT&T line to connect with the blank page or screen in front of you.
Start your timer and write without stopping for seven minutes. Whether you believe your writing is good or bad, don’t stop. If you run out of thoughts, stay positive. Write “yes” or “a new thought will come in a moment,” or “I can do this.” Repeat until a new thought comes. It will.
You must not stop. That is the goal. You are forcing your innate intelligence to override your educated intelligence. You are turning on your creative engine by allowing your intuitive mind to take over.
Freewriting is a great way to get started on any paper.
Begin with the basic idea or concept of what you want to write about. If you don't have a basic idea, that's ok. An idea will come to you as you freewrite.
Now, set your timer for seven minutes. Some say ten minutes is best. It's up to you. I find that the shorter amount of time doesn't allow too many educated thoughts to invade the intuitive mindset you're about to enter. This excercise is not about what's right. It's about putting your educated mind aside, giving yourself up to the universe, and allowing your cosmic AT&T line to connect with the blank page or screen in front of you.
Start your timer and write without stopping for seven minutes. Whether you believe your writing is good or bad, don’t stop. If you run out of thoughts, stay positive. Write “yes” or “a new thought will come in a moment,” or “I can do this.” Repeat until a new thought comes. It will.
You must not stop. That is the goal. You are forcing your innate intelligence to override your educated intelligence. You are turning on your creative engine by allowing your intuitive mind to take over.
16 comments:
i personally believe that i write for myself, when you write for the audience you could lose yourself and your beliefs in the crowd. When i write, yes i think of the audience response but i never let them dictate where the paper is going. In anything i write it is my voice, I may allow the audience to help me decide how loud or soft spoken my voice may be, but the ideas are my own and I wont change them because of them crowd.
I'm not a professional writer but if I had to write something i did not particularly care for I'd like to think i would be able to employ the "fake-it-till-you-make-it" strategy. Though i do agree, obviously the more passionate one is about a topic, the more satisfied with their work they are, the better it usually is.
I believe a real writer like myself should write for myself. Once you began writing for the audience, you may lose sight on what your writing about. When writing for someone else the words you write don't flow as easily. Always write for yourself, because a good paper it's usually one thats heart felt and has great detailed thoughts of a personal opinion.
The only reason I find myself writing is to inform someone. Writing to inform what I’ve been up to, or giving directions. I don’t ever write for myself like a journal or diary. When asked to write a paper I’m definitely going to be writing for someone else, like the teacher or professor. Their the one’s I have to impress so I’ll end up trying to please them. If I was writing for myself it would be sort and to the point.
When I write I am more comfortable in my skin by expressing my feelings. I really get into my writing by searching my inner self. It comes out on paper better and the person reading can feel what I put on paper. Now if I have to write as a second party it takes me a lot more time to get my thoughts on paper, and it isn't as powerful I feel when I read it back to myself... So I like writing from my inner person.
If you don't write for yourself, your not going to be true to the topic that you are writing about. If you are trying to write for someone else, you might think of the paper you are writing about from an outsider's perspective and before you know it, you may forgot what it is you are trying to say and trying to be something that you are not.
To me, writing has always been a way to escape to an imaginary world. I find that writing for yourself unleashes that inner fire. I like to think if you write for yourself, in the end, you will inadvertently write for someone else. The writer isn't the only one who feels angst, happiness, anger, and all those other emotions. Everyone feels that way once in a while, and somehow, a work of art that told how you felt will touch the heart of a reader. Nowadays, it's been about the writer becoming what the audience expects in return for payment. It's been like that for as long as can I remember. But writing for oneself is much more fulfilling. I write what I see, feel, hear, and sense, and people seem to relate. I figure it's because they've gone through the same experiences, too.
I also believe that a person when writing for his or her self can more easily get the point across without getting lost in the audience. In order to write for the audiencethe writer must first believe in his or her self to wite what he or she is thinking about. If a person starts to write for an audience, it is very easy to get lost in all the commotion because it is easy to get caught up in waht you are writing about.
I truly believe that I write for myself and my audience. I want to be able to write and not feel trapped in some kind of trans world, where my fingers just keep typing and before you know it I’m all over the place writing nonsense. I also want my audience to know where I am coming from not only that but to feel what I’m writing and saying in my words to be able to read between my words to see what I’m writing as one with me the author. I don’t want them to be confused. Some writers are all over the page thinking that they are writing when in fact they are a train wreck because they don’t write for themselves or they are just focusing on the audience and not both. I feel so strongly about the fact that both writing for yourself and the audience is all that matters when you’re writing because when people read certain articles or books they want to be able to understand them and say yes I see where the author was going with this article or story. Now if I had a choice yes I would say write for yourself because you know what you want to put on paper and sometimes things people go through or think of they want to write about it but don’t know how to get the words out so they just write and write all along writing for there selves not focusing on a audience.
The only time I find myself writing for myself, is when I am rambling on about nothing long enough that it turns into some kind of subConscious deep thought. This dosn't happen very often because most often I am writing for my teachers and have an agenda to cover.
You, Stay classy San Diego.
I am not the type of person that writes for myself. When I write, I visualize my audience, and gear the paper towards that specific audience. If I were to begin a diary or writing at a more professional level my position on this may change. As people keep pointing out, if you only write for yourself, you will lose yourself and your opinions and become a slave of society.
I like Lanzbaum's position, however I cannot relate because I'm so new to the idea of writing for an audience. I've never written for anyone other than myself, and while writing is a personal interest of mine, that's all it really is...is personal. This is the first time I've ever been in a class (since 9th grade honor's English) that I had to do any "audience-style" writing.
I do not agree with Lanzbaum's rhetoric-and-writing professors statement, though. He said, "We must write for our audience; we do not write for ourselves." I feel that we must write for ourselves before we can write for anyone else. How can someone else be interested in my work if even I am not interested in my work?
Personally, if I am going to spill my heart on paper, I'm not going to make an attempt do it 'for' someone-I want to do it for 'me' first. Once I am happy with the final outcome, then I will present to someone else. Well...except wit these blogs-but to me, that's the almost the same as freewriting. :)
First off. As our Instructor knows, I cannot write for a specific audience. I write what my mind allows me too. I believe that if you write for yourself then you are actually creating something. something special that is from you and no one else. If you are forced to write for a specific group, then you lose you. And when you do that you might as well be coping text out of a book or a magazine. I do, however, understand that sometimes you have to fall within the confines and regulations of our formally informal society. When this happens you must turn yourself gray and hope that you can pull yourself out again. If you have a professor that makes you write like a key copy fool, you must write to get the grade, and please your uninformed mentor. No offense to any one is intended. I should have been paying more attention in class and I would know a little more about each person that are my classmates. I apologize for this, but here is how I feel.
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