Perspective

I watched a Boy Meets World episode yesterday.  To my delight, it was a writing episode.  Cory was a journalist for the school paper, and he was in the process of writing bits of stories that did not have much depth.  His best friend, Shawn, encouraged him to write a piece that mattered.  Of course after that suggestion, hilarious events began to unfold.

Shawn told Cory to write a story based upon a girl's perspective--the perspective she has regarding the dating world.  Their inspiration came from a book they were reading in Mr. Feeny's class.  :)  As with any Boy Meets World episode, the storyline becomes more and more comical, because eventually you see Shawn dressing up like a girl.  He is the guinea pig in this experiment.  His task is to discover a girl's point of view on a date, and he finds himself in a situation where one of the popular boys only wants to fool around.  This boy will not listen to Shawn's (the girl) no.

The event is very enlightening for Shawn, because he never really considered a girl's feelings like that before, and he vows to change his own dating behavior hence forth.  The show ends with Cory's piece reaching wide acclaim in the school newspaper.

This episode was so interesting to me, because it was all based on perspective.  Any time I ever read a novel or poem in college, every student always looked at it from a different perspective.  The analysis was always different for each person.  Why is this and what does it mean?  Is it all just a matter of taste?

This kind of perspective is always scary for the writer.  Will my audience like what I have written?  Will they enjoy the genre or setting I have created?

For me, this type of perceptive is based on opinion, and I would rather it be based on truth--just like Shawn's revelation. His knowledge is factual truth no matter how you analyze it.  If someone likes or dislikes my writing, I want it come from truthful perspective and not just opinion.   

For the writer, write according to your passions, and do not worry about every critic out there.  Someone will love your writing and someone else will not, but that is okay.  Remember, it is all based upon perspective.