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A useful exercise.
Feb. 6th, 2010 02:36 pmIf you're an author who's having trouble coming to terms with the fact that when you put your work out there in front of the world it's going to be taken in all sorts of ways and people are going to find all kinds of meanings from it that you didn't intend and, in some cases, they will completely miss the actual point behind it, here is something you can do to help you make peace with that.
Find somebody you care about, and whom also you respect... somebody whose judgment and insight you trust, whose opinions you're not likely to simply dismiss or ignore.
Tell this person stories about your life... not just facts about yourself but stories about your life. The things that matter to you, the things that shaped you, the things that haunt you and have stuck with you for years... the stories about yourself that mean something, that have a point that is so readily apparent that you'd be amazed if anybody fails to grasp exactly what it is.
If you do this with enough of these stories, chances are excellent that you will be amazed... amazed at how badly your audience of one has missed the point. Then you will either gain some valuable perspective about... well, perspective... or else you will lose your good opinion of someone you regarded as generally perceptive and intelligent.
Find somebody you care about, and whom also you respect... somebody whose judgment and insight you trust, whose opinions you're not likely to simply dismiss or ignore.
Tell this person stories about your life... not just facts about yourself but stories about your life. The things that matter to you, the things that shaped you, the things that haunt you and have stuck with you for years... the stories about yourself that mean something, that have a point that is so readily apparent that you'd be amazed if anybody fails to grasp exactly what it is.
If you do this with enough of these stories, chances are excellent that you will be amazed... amazed at how badly your audience of one has missed the point. Then you will either gain some valuable perspective about... well, perspective... or else you will lose your good opinion of someone you regarded as generally perceptive and intelligent.