Write from the Head or Write from the Heart?

This was a question I got two days ago…It is difficult to answer but it depends on A) what you are writing, B) they type of audience your intending it for and C) whether any damned good will come of it–but if it makes you feel a hell of a lot better, then the answer to C) is “HELL YES!” regardless…

When you write from the “head” it is my opinion that you are going for the academia audience–the well-traveled and educated audience and/or the elitists in the movie or publishing industries.  When trying to appeal to this crowd, they are usually looking at what will sell and what makes sense TO THEM.  Again, that is my opinion. The thing to bear in mind is that whatever makes sense TO THEM might make less sense to “Joe Public“.  That is why the a lot of indie projects get respect…They buck the system altogether in many ways.  The same is true of the music industry, I think.

NOW for writing from the heart…IF it feels write to you regardless of what those in the above crowd think AND  if it helps you or someone else who reads it, then it was worth putting forth the energy to begin with.  Now what makes sense to this crowd–which is usually going to be your “JOE PUBLIC” crowd, may NOT make sense to the above crowd…Get it?

The average public will take some C4 and common sense smashing into reality over the new age philosophy any day of the week.  Do not get me wrong, I am not knocking the writers in that movement that inspired me, but I am saying that what works for YOU may be different. There is nothing wrong with watching movies like “Letters to God“, “The Help” and such…However some people will NEVER get into such movies because they were raised to think differently and on a different level.  It doesn’t mean that one audience is above the other either. However every REAL coin is two-sided.  Every person has more than one dimension also.

Now comes the big bitch word:  “REALITY“…Are you trying to write to sell? Then you need to get into writer’s workshops and such.  Take college English classes too…Believe it or not, it does help.  If nothing else, you will learn very quickly how to make a logical thought stick or a new term memorable…My personal favorite that I coined is the “closet exhibitionist“.  This is the person who is too afraid to be themselves, go into acting or whatever, and yet dreams of being a public figure…He or she often pretends to be a famous person that he or she looks up to, or acts out parts of their favorite movies.  Others play air guitar without ever learning how to play the real thing and then kick themselves when they are older for not doing so.

Believe me that condition is very real…I should know.  For the first time in 25 years, I sang publicly last night…I was quite well received and so was my son–who I did one duet with.  Not that we’ll ever make it big but I was not kidding when I said a certain Facebook page changed my life.  I had to build up to this point. I left singing for reasons which I will keep to myself, and I refused to take more theater classes…I probably should have done it, but I had some rather strange ideas about “the establishment’ back then and felt that I was better off being a recluse.

Anyway, to the person who asked, this is from my heart…25 years ago I let my head rule and not all jackasses have long ears…Figure it out and decide for yourself where your destiny lies, but don’t let anything keep you from it–not even those who mean well…Why?  Let’s just say JOB had 3 good friends.  Get my drift?

Have a great week!   If you have time, you might consider watching “Chariots of Fire” with Ben Cross…Talk about 2 sides of a coin…You have two men running for two different reasons…Figure it out…What are you writing for? Who are you writing it for? Find your reason and then run the ink well dry dammit! I WISH I watched this when it came out…I might have not had a 25+ year case of posterior cranial rectumitis, if you know what I mean…

Have a link on me:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmj4lU0sra0&feature=related