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Learning to be personable Enter the virtual conversation Your job is to break through the artificiality of the experience |
Let's talk persona to persona.Yes, you must invent some kind of persona on your own side, to figure out how to talk to the individuals in your audience, whom you may have caricatured in a set of fictional personas. Generally, we consider creating a writing persona as a little dishonest, almost like putting on a mask. True, when the intent is to deceive, overawe, or attack. But you can create a perfectly reasonable persona, one
that has some of your own background, concerns, pet ideas, without being
dishonest.
Enter
the virtual conversation
You are about to engage in a virtual conversation, where you don't
know a lot about the person you are talking to. Sure, you've read the
profile, plowed through the email, checked the transaction history.
But you are still guessing. And so you really don't start out with
a human relationship.
But if you build your own persona sincerely, out of your own real
experience, you will develop a definite connection with the person you are
writing for.
If you reveal a few facts about yourself, watch the response.
People realize, gosh, there is a person there.
Suddenly, they want to know about your town, your hobbies, your kids.
Guard your privacy
To protect your own privacy, and to maintain your own boundaries secure, you
need a carefully developed persona--a public personality.
You may need to develop a different writing persona for each major group
you talk to, so you can morph into their team, looking at things from
their point of view as much as possible, using their language, dealing
with their concerns.
The process resembles writing a script, where you switch from one
character to another, speaking as intensely as you can in that voice, then
switching character, and responding.
Sound crazy? Well, sure. Nutcases carry on imaginary conversations and get
locked up.
The challenge for you is to stay sympathetic enough with each group and
each person so that you don't feel strained adopting the appropriate
stance for your relationship.
So you are acting in a role, as one persona, and when you address a niche
audience, you are talking to a character you have invented, a persona who
stands in for the real people who are members of that group. That's
talking persona to persona.
When you answer e-mail, type responses in a chat session, or post replies
on a discussion board, you are, in a way, writing person to person.
But even here you are acting in a role, adopting a persona, and the other
person is too. So the conversation has an artificial flavor.
Your job is to break through the
artificiality of the experience.
Overcome the distance imposed by the medium, and the constraints
of your own context. You have to work hard to become a human being, on the
Web.
Imagine the way you would like the virtual conversation to go--what you
will say, and what she will say, and how the exchange will progress.
Envision a satisfactory outcome.
What exactly do you want to happen, as a result of the texts you send, and
the responses you get back? Where is this relationship headed? As Ann
Landers asks, what will make you both happy?
Stretch the canvas and sketch in the basic outlines of the goal. But leave
the picture unfinished.
Let the unknown enter--the unpredictable other, the amazing quirks, the
surprising feelings, the odd twists of the other person's thoughts-and
your own.
People turn out to be full of surprises, if you listen with an open heart.
So build your persona loosely enough to make room for their side of the
conversation. |
Resource Who am I writing for, and, incidentally, who am I? (Full chapter from Hot Text, in PDF, 566K, or about 10 minutes at 56k)
I wear this big cowboy hat because I live
in New Mexico,
|
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