Writing is tough work. Don’t let anyone tell you differently. You sit at the screen listening to that voice in your head, and you have no clue if what you are putting down is any good. There is a voice in your head saying this is a waste of time, and there must be more productive things to do.

The solution to this riddle is easy… and not so easy to solve. You show your writing to another person and let him or her decide. Choosing the right person is what is difficult.

 Ken Macrorie, my mentor in graduate school, had the best revision exercise I have ever seen.  His premise was that negative criticism is too harsh and positive feedback is too phoney. After we wrote an essay on a topic connected to our experience, he would have us sit in his “helping circle.” We would then give our paper to the person next to us who would read it to himself or herself to understand the meaning of the piece. Then we would read our partner’s piece to the rest of the group.

Ken asserted that involuntary gestures are the best indicator of discovering what is effective or what is shaky. If the listener tilts his or her head, the listener is confused. If the person smiles with a grin of acknowledgement, the listener comprehends.

 While you watch the reactions of your audience, you listen to the reader. If the reader stumbles, you know you’ll have to clean that section up. If he doesn’t make the right intonations, he doesn’t understand the meaning of the piece. Ken declared that if you really like another person’s essay, you can say something to him or her after class. That would be an indication of sincerity.

The best piece of writing I have ever encountered on the topic on the relationship between the writer and his desire for a sympathetic audience is Randall Jarrell’s “The Bat-Poet.” I stumbled upon this story in a Junior Great Books text when I was teaching sixth grade at an independent school in Nashville, Tennessee.  

You may have encountered Randall Jarrell in a high school English class because his poem “Death of a Ball Turret Gunner” has appeared in many modern poetry anthologies. His first line is a wonderful example of a solid opening. He writes, “From my mother’s sleep I feel into the State.” The rest of the poem covers his death. Funny how titles work. In an interview between John Lithgow and Bill Moyers, Lithgow revealed his love of poetry and read Jarrell’s poem to his celebrated host.

The premise of "The Bat-Poet”  deals with the story of a bat who is a poet is a different sort of bird.. or bat in this case. He sleeps during the night, and he flies during the day. While he is flying in the daylight one day, he is attacked by an owl. What does he do with this experience? He writes a poem about it.

Like all writers, he is in search of an audience with whom he can share his experience. The first person… I mean,  animal he approaches is the mockingbird. Remember: the mockingbird is a wonderful songbird. The problem is that he is a mockingbird. In other words, he cannot come up with anything original. Also, the mockingbird has this horrible habit of defending his territory at any costs; he always seems to be chasing someone off of his land.

When the chipmunk takes his poem about the attack to the mockingbird, the songbird only makes comments on the rhyme scheme and the change in its pattern. He can only look at the technique of the poem and is silent on the meaning of the piece. When the Bat-Poet leaves the mockingbird, he feels as if his critic has missed the boat.

Soon our hero stumbles upon a chipmunk who discovers that the bat likes to write. The poet reads his poem to his new friend who exclaims, “I know how you feel. Those owls are scary. “ The chipmunk quickly asks his friend to write a poem about him.

 The bat politely asks, “What do you want in your poem?”

 “Holes. Holes are important to me” exclaims the chipmunk.

 So our inventive writer composes a poem about a his friend where he writes a long line and then a short line, in effect, creating holes between the lines.  When he reads the draft, the chipmunk is pleased.

When you give your writing to other people, you will meet chipmunks and mockingbirds along the way. After your encounters with the mockingbirds, you may not want to write for a while, and when you meet the chipmunks, you may want to write prodigiously for the rest of your life.

The great thing about Hub Pages is that you will find an audience for your work.  You could argue that the marketplace will give you feedback on the quality of the writing. But be careful. Look at some of the techniques of some of the “respected” writers on the internet. Some will resort to the same techniques that Madison Avenue uses to get your attention.

The question is: Do you want to play this game?