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May 05, 2010

» Why You Shouldn’t Write for Other Writers

Hugh Macleod:

There’s a scene in “Mad Men”, the TV drama about a 1960s advertising agency.
One of the junior copywriters is showing the Creative Director an ad he’s just written. The ad is clever, flowery, and poetic.
The Creative Director cuts the copywriter down in five short, stern words:
“Don’t write for other writers.”
Bingo. It’s not the copywriter’s literary chums who are buying the product. It’s housewives in Indiana. Clever copy might get the copywriter clapped on the back by his colleagues, but it won’t get the product sold.

I have SO MANY artist and writer friends who’ve said to me in conversation, “I make art for other artists.” And it just baffles me. Perhaps it’s another product of MFA programs/academia: people learn to write by writing for their writing teachers and fellow students, etc. Ugh.

Now, you can’t write for everyone. Kurt Vonnegut said, “Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.”

Me? I’m like Stephen King: I write for my wife. A smart woman who’s busy and doesn’t have time to be wasted. I figure if she gets it, that’s all that matters.