It is more difficult to keep the attention of hearers than of readers.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
But I care about the reader, and I'm trying to keep the reader's attention for as long as I can.
I wrote for so many years in a bubble, the way everyone does, and there were large swaths of time where you think you're doing this for nothing. An audience is crucial, a back and forth with the invisible readers.
I read everything aloud, novels as well as picture books. I believe the eye and ear are different listeners. So as writers, we have to please both.
I don't want to waste my readers' time ever. My readers are very important to me.
Some readers allow their prejudices to blind them. A good reader knows how to disregard inappropriate responses.
For people who are readers, reading is important to them.
I tend not to think about the reading public at all, or the business, when I'm writing.
Speeches are much easier if you read them. I just find when I do that, it's harder to fire up the crowd.
It's so much easier to tell people what they want to hear instead of what they need to hear.
Readers are made by readers - it is so obvious it is almost banal to say it.