As a writer, one of things that I personally try to strive for is simply to entertain. Yet, there are so many aspects to writing that are involved with being an entertaining writer. For example, there's a rather essential question that I need to ask myself: how can I ensure that I'm writing something that is relevant AND entertaining to audience? I believe that before I can even begin to explore this question, I must first build upon some basic questions that every writer must confront along the way.
The first question I'll explore is, how do get the audience to pay attention in the first place? I believe that it starts with basic writing skills, as in, knowing how to punctuate, how to spell correctly, how to properly form a thesis, etc (spelling is a rather HUGE weakness of mine, even though I like to pride myself on having a flowery vocabulary). Think of it this way: if you don't look like you know what you're talking about in the first place, then people will probably refrain from trying to examine your handy work to see if you actually do know what you're talking about. Basics are a necessity for any writer.
The next question is, how can I produce something that is relevant to my audience? Well, the true answer is that I simply can't...not always, anyway. My thoughts are rather unusual, so it's a little difficult for me, to be honest. Yet, I believe that, in order to be relevant to your audience, you need to be able to relate to your audience; rather, your audience needs to be able to relate to you. The human experience is very unique to the individual, however, there are always commonalities. For example, we're both human! That's a start, right?
The final question that I'll explore is, how can I be entertaining to my audience? Well, to begin with, I'm naturally very cynical (which some people actually find funny). I'm typically trying to either find humor, or pull humor out of a subject matter. Also, I can fall back to being able to relate to audience. Think back to your childhood: have you ever had to pick out "the switch" whenever you got in trouble? It was like you were stuck between a rock and an even BIGGER rock because you were left with seemingly only two choices: Option A left you with picking the weak switch, which led to your parent seeking one more powerful than the one you picked. Option B was picking out the awful switch to begin with. Ah, childhood; it was such a wonderful time period.
All of this guiding questions should help me find a way to answering my main question, but I could always ask more. I need to always ask the right question so that I may find the answer...so that I can ask more questions. I'll never be a "the perfectly entertainingly relevant" writer, but I hope that I'll eventually get there.
I really like this post it’s similar to mine only I did how to explain. My input on it would be in the second paragraph where you state developing a thesis that’s my main problem my former english teachers never taught me how to properly develop a thesis. Your post is one of the most important phases of writing, so many times I have to read things that completely bore me. You really stated the main facts in entertaining your audience. Good Job!
ReplyDeleteVery good post. I agree with you and think a lot of the time it is almost impossible to relate to the audience completely because you could be different from them. Also being "unusual" is never bad but seen as an opportunity to be unique. I really enjoyed your post of how you were able to address issues, keep to your story, and entertain while doing so.
ReplyDeleteYour questions are also mine,especially for the last one-how to entertainment audience. Sometimes,it's hard to find funny on some serious topic. I think the good way to improve the humorous is to watch some famous and perfect speech online .We can learn from those speakers, and after that, we may find how to show the humorous during the speech,which will make our speech a big difference!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed Ninja's post, as well. He brings up some very good points about the struggle to make yourself and your audience happy. The best writers can do both but often they do it completely by accident. If you write to please yourself or someone you know, then more than likely you will please a larger audience. Stephen King writes for his wife-he figures if she likes something he writes, then that's enough for him (but of course millions of other people like his writing, too).
ReplyDeleteYour post is so similar to mine. We have the same problem with entertaining the audience. I liked how you stated your struggle with entertaining the audience too. Relating yourself to your audience is really hard and sometimes seems impossible unless you know them personally. Like talking to a complete stranger you question what to say & ask them... it's the same thing with writing. It's just another hurdle we have to get over.
ReplyDeleteStephen King's concept of writing for his wife is actually quite similar to how I view writing for a largely unknown audience--I write in the style that I think my personal friends would enjoy. I know a wide variety of individuals, therefore, I write while wondering how they would react to this particular subject matter.
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