Yet again today, I found myself wondering why I've been having so much trouble writing these Burning Man-related pieces. In today's zero-draft, a question arose that offered me some useful perspective: Who is my intended audience with these pieces? Am I writing for myself, to clarify my thinking? Am I writing for people who've never gone to Burning Man and probably won't, but might want to learn something about it? Am I writing for the friends I've been there with and hope to go with again? A combination of these? Some other group entirely?
I have two friends going to the playa for the first time this year, and tomorrow's will be the last piece I write here that they could possibly see before they reach Black Rock City and (I hope) turn off their phones for a week. That recognition really helped; anything I publish for the rest of the week (at least one piece, maybe more) will be written with their eyes in mind. They may not actually read it, of course, but that's not the point. Shifting my perspective in this manner finally allowed me to find some ease in the writing process. Based on today's drafting, what I publish tomorrow will be the first piece in two weeks I didn't struggle terribly over.