Friday, September 29, 2006

The Wall Street Journal and the Amorphous Audience

My friend, the wonderful Stephen Jukuri, was quoted in The Wall Street Journal this week!

This is a thing that I find very cool because, though Stephen is an extraordinarily talented writer and artist, he's not exactly the money-driven, corporate poster child for the WSJ.

I told him I was impressed at his "connections."

His response:

I wish I was that well connected. Freak chance is all. [The writer] wrote a great article on multi-tasking, and I responded, and next thing you know....

This just goes to show how powerful responding to a person's writing can be. We write because we have something to say. We like to think we can touch people. It's always a welcome surprise, however, when we discover that we actually connect with our audience.

For many writers, their audience is a sort of distant, amorphous blur. The writer may wonder if anyone out there really gets what he or she is talking about. When someone actually does "get it," and takes the time out of his or her busy schedule to say so, it is a Banner Day, indeed.

So, kudos to Stephen -- not for being a featured Quote of the Day, but for taking the time to connect with someone whose words connected with him. Every writer should be so fortunate.