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Saturday, September 22, 2007

Unique and universal, the struggle to be both

An excellent post over at my friend Kathy's blog Well Placed Words got me to thinking about this difficult subject. Her entry is about knowing your audience and writing for them--always a good idea.

A well-known author expanded on that idea: what you want to write is "unique and universal." I can't recall the name of the writer...it applies to all creative work, however.

Think about a favorite novel, or piece of any artwork. What draws you to the work? What keeps you there? It's unique, there's nothing else like the composition or the characters or the subject. Yet, it resonates.

How to be unique and universal? We're all both. The skill to develop is to recognize and use our uniqueness to be universal. Not easy. Worth the work.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good thought, Conda. I'll keep it in mind today as I work. Thanks!!

Conda Douglas said...

I keep forgetting about the unique part belonging to each and every one of us. For example, your blog entry today reminded me of how different Idaho is from Florida--how UNIQUE where we live is!