There's apparently a wide range of opinions about how much attention an artist (of any kind) should pay to the audience. Strangely, I hadn't thought much about this before.
I teach middle grade aged kids. I have them think about their audience all the time when they're doing their work. Writing a letter to a company to discuss their product requires a very different tone than texting a friend. Drawing a picture for yourself is different from producing a piece of art to display in the hallway. Preparing a slideshow to share with your class is different from picking photos to display as your wallpaper.
Audience is important.
Audience affects how you create whatever it is you're creating. When the kids are trying to decide on the form their creation is going to take, I tell them if they think about the purpose and the audience it should tell them what form to use. You don't write a letter to the queen starting with " 'sup? "
So, should the audience affect the writer? I'd say yes - especially if a writer wants to be published.
Even if a writer writes for herself/himself, the writer is writing to please the audience.
I don't mean you ONLY write to the audience - that wouldn't be any fun at all. You need to write your story with your flair - but I think you have to at least keep your audience in mind.
What do you think?
