Audience

Brilliant Elaine May adapted “La Cage aux Faux” for Mike Nichols' "The Birdcage," one of the funniest films I’ve ever seen. May's clever language and understanding of human nature put her in a class by herself. Yet now “The Birdcage” puzzles some viewers who did not know the 1980s & 90s or understand its cultural/political references. This is the nature of audience. Considering audience and zeitgeist can stifle writers.  For example, I don't know who's reading this blog. Sometimes there have been many, sometimes just a few. It keeps changing. And I don't know what they will like or what they want to read. Some of my writing is unusual, some political. Always, the writing audiences like most is universal: that which most of your readers can relate to or identify with. But universal writing can best be achieved in rewriting and sometimes not at all. In my opinion, it's hard to write what you may think others want to read. If you can be authentic, your creation might fly - if not now, then in the future.That's the strange thing about creating: you never know if or when it will catch on or where.