“People who say they write for themselves write for no one. The reader is the spark that makes your work explode into being.” — Mary Karr
By the same token, people who say they write for everyone write for no one. Writing requires — demands — an audience. Karr calls it a “spark.” It may be an appropriate metaphor. The reader causes a work that’s so much ash to regain life and take flight.
My own writing, which includes the essays found here and work written for clients, “sparks” upon several audiences. They are my flint. I write for executives, entrepreneurs, technologists, parents…the list gets long, fast. I write for a lot of people when I write for clients.
Here, I more or less devote myself to two or three audiences. I write for writers, people like me who devour process and desire to improve their talents and skills. I address fledgling business owners because they, like me, sometimes struggle with the role. It contains so many nuances and so many things to be considered on a daily basis: how to be firm without being rude, how to set prices (and stick to them), how to procure new leads and contracts.
My final audience, though, resides deep in my heart and soul. It’s the believing artist, the one who knows God has given them talents and gifts. They see their art and work as worship. Everything within them aches to glorify his name as they set pen to paper, words to screen.
They seek to understand how their work intersects and informs not only faith but also culture. They look for ways to serve—with their art if they can but, if not, any other way possible. For them, character and spiritual growth come before the art because they are not artists first. They are God’s children first, and that, that makes all the difference.
It is for them that I predominately write. They spark and make my “work explode into being.” They urge me, whether they know it or not, to continue writing, to keep on trying, to stay the course God sets me on.
Image: K^13 (Creative Commons)