I was just recalling in my own post this week, what it was like being a teenager in the late 80s/early 90s and discovering sexuality for the first time in the context of so much fear around HIV and AIDS. I think it was drilled into us that if we didn't use a condom we were going to die. So much fear. Your experiences in this area sound fascinating Ann and I love that the retirement village residents were so open to it.
Teaching offered perennial challenges in reaching audience. I still remain mystified by how unpredictable my students could be, how the same lesson plan and jokes that worked the hour before fell flat in the next hour. There was always a sweet spot between adequate preparation and over-preparedness. There had to be a plan, but there had to be enough space between each step of that plan for freshness, spontaneity. Sometimes the best classes had no preparation at all, just a few notes dashed off minutes before the top of the hour, and almost straight intuition.
As a writer, I made the most strides while working with a mentor who later became the Poet Laureate of the U.S. We met once a week for 30 minutes. He'd read my new pages, we'd talk about them, then he'd take them home for a closer look and bring them back the next week with comments. I learned how to anticipate his irritation, his delight, when the magic happened for him and when my prose jangled to his ear. I often think that audience works best when we focus on a single discerning reader who is a reliable stand-in for other discerning readers. We can't very well connect with an abstract demographic. But we can make a human connection, and if that connection is with someone with a refined sensibility, they will represent a cohort.
This, at least, is what I tell my coaching clients. My greatest asset is being that discerning reader, that stand-in for other readers, for them.
I was just recalling in my own post this week, what it was like being a teenager in the late 80s/early 90s and discovering sexuality for the first time in the context of so much fear around HIV and AIDS. I think it was drilled into us that if we didn't use a condom we were going to die. So much fear. Your experiences in this area sound fascinating Ann and I love that the retirement village residents were so open to it.
Teaching offered perennial challenges in reaching audience. I still remain mystified by how unpredictable my students could be, how the same lesson plan and jokes that worked the hour before fell flat in the next hour. There was always a sweet spot between adequate preparation and over-preparedness. There had to be a plan, but there had to be enough space between each step of that plan for freshness, spontaneity. Sometimes the best classes had no preparation at all, just a few notes dashed off minutes before the top of the hour, and almost straight intuition.
As a writer, I made the most strides while working with a mentor who later became the Poet Laureate of the U.S. We met once a week for 30 minutes. He'd read my new pages, we'd talk about them, then he'd take them home for a closer look and bring them back the next week with comments. I learned how to anticipate his irritation, his delight, when the magic happened for him and when my prose jangled to his ear. I often think that audience works best when we focus on a single discerning reader who is a reliable stand-in for other discerning readers. We can't very well connect with an abstract demographic. But we can make a human connection, and if that connection is with someone with a refined sensibility, they will represent a cohort.
This, at least, is what I tell my coaching clients. My greatest asset is being that discerning reader, that stand-in for other readers, for them.