Ask Dr. Stupid...

Alright, so the how of writing...

First off, the relationship between writer and reader is a symbiotic one. Many of the ideas and responsibilities of readers that were presented by Booth can also be turned around and be responsibilities of writers as well. For instance, when discussing or reading a book or piece of writing, readers must be considerate that the piece was written by a human being presenting emotions, so they must put themselves in the writer's shoes in order to understand many things that may be overlooked. It is the same way with writers. Take the conversational (and hopefully polite) feedback that readers give you and think about it. Put yourselves in the the shoes of the reader and think as to whether or not you would really want to read this. Otherwise your writing may be unsuccessful. Writers must thrive off of the audience they are trying to reach. What is it that they really want to hear/read/see? Is it really necessary to add this if they are just going to overlook it? Should I really add this to the work? These questions should be asked when writing a piece.

Now, it can be said that writers can write what they want and not give a shit about what anyone else thinks. Granted, much of writing can and should be done that way, because if you write what everyone likes, then it is boring and lacks substance. However, if I were to write a book on necrophelia and describe how having sex with a corpse can be one of the most exhilirating things one can partake in, I'm not sure how many people would be interested in reading it. Writers need to thrive off the feedback they get from their audience in order to be successful, because while they may personally think it is the best thing since sliced bread, it is useless without any outside criticism to help people realize what is good and what may be not so good.

Also, writers need to be ethically sound with their audience. I slightly mentioned this above with the necrophelia example, but it needs to be reiterated. If your audience consists of old ladies, nuns, and preschool children, then writing a book about sexual fantasies with a corpse while killing babies and kidnapping toddlers would not be in your best interests. You can write what you want to write about, but you must appeal to the correct audience. A perfect example of this is the cartoon Ren and Stimpy. That show was a kid's show on Nickelodeon for quite some time, but it dealt with a lot of dark and disturbing aspects of life such as insanity, paranoia, violence, etc. Eventually it was pulled, but as a child I was unable to understand it. Now looking back on it I find it quite funny, however I cannot believe that it ever aired on that network as a show for children.

Writers do have the responsibility to give the people what they want in the way the writer wants to. In order to that they must be accepting of criticism and in tune with their audience. Not only do they owe it to the readers of what they write, but they owe it to themselves in order to be successful at what they do.

Here's a link for a bit of Ren and Stimpy if you are at all interested in reliving childhood or enjoy idiotic senseless humor as I do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vD9_mFEDFMs