While I am sort of sick of hearing about Elizabeth Gilbert (apologies to everyone who just LOVES her book) I was happy to find out that her sister is Catherine Murdock Gilbert... the YA author who wrote Dairy Queen and its sequels. Cool, no? Putting aside Elizabeth Gilbert's meteoric rise to fame, the Oprah-bump that Eat, Pray, Love received etc. ad nauseum, ad infinitum, the really cool thing about her that The Violets have zeroed in on is how she wrote her book. She wrote it to ONE person, a friend who was troubled, and whom Gilbert felt would benefit from hearing about how her life had changed from her travels and various interactions with nations and people. Just one person. The whole novel was a letter.
In my MFA craft classes and in my writing group, the topic has often turned to audience. Who are you writing for? one of us will ask the other when we're not sure the story is communicating clearly to its intended readers. We often debate whether or not it's important to have an audience, a target toward which to aim the appeal of the story. Some of us try to write for everyone -- adults, teens, middle graders, small children. Others of us consider this futile and just try to write for ourselves.
There has to be middle ground.
Being all things to all people never works in life, not to mention in writing. But writing in consideration of an audience seems scary -- what if the audience is made up of hostile critics who don't respond to your work in the way that you want? -- Picturing yourself writing to a sea of unknown faces may not work, but Gilbert's idea of just writing to one ...is ponder-worthy, and maybe even a tiny bit magical.
What an idea: communication. One to one.
![readergirlz](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2201/2329188702_f86af178b2_o.jpg)
It's NOT a joke: effervescent novelist, Carrie Jones... is running for Maine State Legislature. Whoa! AND we have the same birthday. Which is a coolness unto itself. Go, Carrie, go, Maine! Whoo!
All RIGHT... Because it's ...traditional this first day of April, I have to include some weirdness- so, here are things I WISH were complete jokes, via Ypulse in the last couple of days: Paris Hilton, inspiring role model to young girls. What. Ev. Er. And ...Christian... jeans. No, really.
Happy April.
8 comments:
Hahaha I like how Paris blames the bloggers! Oh, and she calls her friends jaded. Niiiice.
Hooray for Carrie! I know we're all voting for her in spirit.
I thought that thing about the Gilberts being sisters was cool, too. And I'd vote for Carrie if I lived in Maine.
Happy Poetry Month to you! Thanks for alerting readers to the goings-on at Wild Rose Reader and other blogs in celebration of poetry during April. I've got some excellent poetry books to give away!
Thanks for the shout out. I dunno if I'm more celebratory or just more public in my celebration. But either way it's fun seeing how many folks are celebrating this time around....
Can I start writing What.Ev.Er. like that, too? That makes perfect sense to me...
I had no idea those Gilberts were of the same stock. Whaddya know. Words run in the blood.
I reeeeeeeally wanna read Catherine Gilbert Murdock's books. Isn't there a brand new one out? Too many books, not enough time.
Aw, thanks. I feel so famous being on your blog. It's even better than (hopefully) winning an election.
Post a Comment