What we’re doing here is getting you to really, really think about how you’d change what you are saying to fit different audiences. It’s a silly exercise – more of a game – but after it you should be far better able to see how you need to consider the audience and their needs; what’s important to them rather than you; and how radically different things might be from your default…
The easy bit... Remind yourself of the story of Cinderella. It’s a story that everyone knows of the poor downtrodden younger sister (the kind one) who gets to marry the prince, with the help of her Fairy Godmother.
The hard bit… Take some time to consider how you’d tell the story differently if you weren’t writing it to the traditional audience.
The story of Cinderella, as we usually tell it, is entirely orientated around the girl herself and the default audience is ‘you’ – the reader of a book or someone in the audience at a pantomime, or something similar. Try it these different ways…
As a report for an annual performance review of the Fairy Godmother (the Global Association of Fairy Godmothers is a pretty hardcore organisation!)
You’ll have to consider things like
- where she was for the first years of Cinderella’s life
- how long it took her to turn up
- whether three nights was quick work or about right
- what the collateral damage was
As an article in the well-known magazine “Cobblers’ Review”
You’ll have to consider things like
- how effective the shoes were
- why one of them (at least) didn’t turn back at midnight like the rest of the outfit
- what the shoes looked like
- how someone can dance in glass shoes
- how someone can dance in shoes at all as she had no training
- why Cinderella’s feet didn’t hurt after so long dancing
As a report to an activist animal welfare charity
You’ll have to consider things like
- the animal welfare implications of transforming the mice
- whether the mice even survived
- how the mice got home afterwards
- whether anyone asked the mice’s permission first
The hardest part of all is translating this back to your ‘real world’, so…
When you’ve had a go at this exercise, think about your next report or presentation and how you might need to adjust it according to your audience.
The exercise is fun and a little stupid – your material shouldn’t be…
…stupid, that is… They can be as much fun as you like!