Exercise: The Paper Cup – Audience (Part 4)

In African dramatic form, dramatic mask contains the “audience.” Audience in this case means audience as “craft” as opposed to audience as a marketing tool. Audience with regard to “what is explained” versus “what is understood.” For example, if you are writing a YA (Young Adult) novel nowadays, would likely describe aspects of social media use differently than you would, knowing that who “should understand” your fiction is someone who probably has three college-aged kids. This should not be confused with what a figure (character) might know or how they might talk about a subject: A young person, who is not very social media literate does not automatically become literate because your audience is, but the narrative should probably not go out of its way to insult its audience while navigating the limitations of its figures (unless your intent is to confuse the reader ⁠—The keyword being “intent”).

Audience as craft is understanding who should relate to the experience you are communicating and is identified by the intelligence, or shared intellect, a story carries.  In story, an audience is triggered through a series of ‘community terms’ that establish a contract of shared interest and outcome.

As author, what contract do you wish to establish with an audience? Let’s look at how audience was put into our micro story about a paper cup based on what is explained versus what is understood.

“What the hell did anyone really know about a paper cup? There were probably a billion of them produced in the U.S. ⁠—or China, let’s be honest— daily and then a million more uses for every kid with sense enough to tape string to one end, put the other to his ear, and spend all day, at bursts, passing silly noises or saying the dumbest things that would, against time, still find ways to seat the fondest memories. Try calling that fun to a kid with an iPad. Now, all of them, foam cups, telephones, friends, and fond memories were the same ‘little white devils’ waiting to ruin even a landfill. “

EXERCISE: Who Should Make Sense of This?

1) Identify the sympathies you would like to give an audience. How does your story directly “sell” this sympathy and how does it “soft sell,” by way of empathy? 

At the time that our story about a paper cup was written, iPads were cooler than they are now. Today, I might change iPad to a video game player or some description of kids (or adults – our narrator would definitely be triggered by that) playing Fortnite.

2) Identify the sympathies related to ‘shared experience.’ What intelligence is explained in your story versus what should be understood?

The narrator in this story is feeling disconnected. He is either describing the child’s game Telephone for an audience that doesn’t understand or making a point of how easy it was at one time for a child to come by eternal pleasure.

It is important to understand that there will be sympathy, empathy, and triggers an author cannot control, readers being ‘living’ things; but as author, can protect your meaning by controlling how triggers are contained in story per what is consistent, what is prioritized, and ultimately, what is the outcome. 

For works in progress: Compare your narrator’s audience to that of your story. Where do these ‘community terms’ intersect in story and where do they reject each other?

How does audience reveal itself in your fiction?

Exercise: Consider your story in full. Who should understand your story? What will be their sympathies and challenges to understanding your story? How does your story present these sympathies and manage these challenges?

Take 500 words of your fiction and, with the above answers in mind, ask the same questions relevant to the movement between points within your story.

What is explained in your story and what should be understood?

Next: What Is African Dramatic Form?

Previous: The Paper Cup – Mind The Construction Lines (Part 3)