conversation is an engine

Part of my work life is invested in helping college students believe writing can be a legitimate career. Not long ago the technical writing class I taught took a break to hear Scott Cairns discuss his poetry, his writing process and his motivations. Cairns commented that he rarely thinks about audience when he writes. He writes as a way of finding what he does not know. Questions are his starting point. He writes to resolve those questions.

But wait: not think about audience?

When our class met again, we discussed at length how it is the poet could write without thinking about audience. For the classes I teach, audience is a key element that shapes the writing. What the audience already knows, what the audiences wants to know, and what the audience needs to know are all questions we entertain as we shape words and concepts to accomplish stuff out in the world. We hope our words (at least) engage our audience in meaningful dialogue or (at best) persuade them to take some action based on received/processed messages (the enduring dream of any copywriter).

Though audience looms large in shaping the working writer’s discipline, I do not disagree with Cairns. Many of my best connections with audiences have occurred when words have formed over some deeply personal question. Those same words have then gone on to connect to my audience in ways I had never anticipated and could not have planned. I’m not talking about creative writing exercises, but working editorials, print ads, direct mail and marketing copy. Perhaps that is why writing remains mysterious: it comes from several layers of consciousness seemingly at the same time. And somewhere in that bubbling stew our human connections speak with each other. Knowing God created us to communicate (with Him and each other) makes me more and more curious about the secret life of words.

Working writers must balance audience infatuation with ignorance of audience. The best communication emerges from somewhere between transcendence and imminence.

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