Sanguine Tenacious Tidings

News For the Public/ Fiction For Me

Motivational Monday! Musician David Bowie, born on this day in 1947, once said "All my big mistakes are when I try to second-guess or please an audience. My work is always stronger when I get very selfish about it." How true (or false) is this about your own writing? What's more important: pleasing yourself, or your audience?

I have to say this has a lot to do with a writing education and training. I graduated with a degree from the school of Journalism at Edinboro University in Pa. Journalists write for the audience, to inform and educate about whatever subject seems important. There is a lot of research involved.

If you are a journalist working for a periodical of some sort you are probably assigned a subject or asked to find a subject the public will want to read about. Your subject has to be approved for publication. Then you look for the information that maybe is not being written about. You would be surprised how much real honest information is out there that never reaches the public. That is another reason a free Web is important. We need to keep the information age alive even if you have to sort through some of the not so truthful information.

For instance, did you know there is a health bill out there and has been for many, many years that can't get approved because it is considered to close to socialism? And, a socialistic health bill is the only kind that can work in the USA today because of the amount of people and types of health problems out there. Many Doctors approve of this bill, and there is a Doctors association that is signing up Doctors that approve of the bill and advertising their approval. The bill would totally reorganize the health situation in this country. It would also destroy a lot of the graft that is running the current health crisis.

Plus, I studied print journalism which is different from say TV News. News on TV has a defined time limit for each story presented. So, once again the public gets shafted about the indepth knowledge that would help them decide if it is a relevant, adequate story. I'm often left screeching questions at whatever TV News I'm watching which of course drives K to either laugh or wish I'd shut up. I don't always watch news when he isn't here. Maybe he watches always when he is here just to hear me grump.

Now, when I write fiction, I just write whatever is interesting or comes flowing out of my brain. Pictures often give me ideas. I'm playing with a longer story that came into my head when I was watching a documentary on PBS. It's totally fiction and never gets fully finished because I keep adding to it. It's even science fiction which I have always really liked. So, I have to say I write fiction for me. Maybe it even keeps me sane since I am basically a shut in now., , and more . I don't have a lot of training in writing a novel so, I have to keep back tracking to add description.

Another girl and I wrote a science fiction scene in high school. when we were seniors, for the year book but, it was a contest and it did not get published. I don't even remember how the story unfolded. That was in 1962.

I wrote for a Bird periodical online for awhile until it went out of business. In 1990's.

Of course I love this saying "Write ON!"