Do You Wanna Touch Me? (Oh Yeah)
One evening I saw a clean-cut man settle down to sleep with a cardboard box behind him, sitting upright with his feet extended and a blanket covering his legs while he scrolled through his cell phone. He was settling in for the night at the local post office building. I wondered what had happened in his life that had led him to this moment.
Only this week I watched a cute little boy of about two years old wandering around with a snotty nose and a small piece of plastic in his hand with a big smile on his face exploring the corridor as his mother, sat in a queue for non-booked patients. The queue started at 7 a.m. and would last till 2 p.m. in the afternoon. She would be lucky, very lucky, if she got an appointment to see a doctor to attend to her child.?
Earlier this week I saw a man and a woman in their late 70s walking together on the beachfront in the howling wind and chilly winter air. A couple who have probably spent years of living together, cherishing their last years, grateful for being together at this late hour of life. How long to go before one of them departs this life?
The question in this post comes from a song called ? “*Do You Wanna Touch Me”, also referred to as “Do You Wanna Touch Me? (Oh Yeah)” by English glam rock singer Gary Glitter, written by Glitter with Mike Leander and produced by Leander. Joan Jett & the Blackhearts sang a spicy version of the song. ?
The point?
?Touching your readers. I read a lot of stuff on the internet and in local community newspapers this week, plus two nonfiction books. I had to skim over a lot of the writing because it was so dull. It didn’t touch me at all. It’s wonderful when writing can touch you. Some authors and writers just seem to miss the point. I’m reading about a shipwreck on the Namibian coastline that happened in the 1940’s. Although the shipwreck caused much suffering to those who made it ashore, I just don’t get a feeling for their suffering. But look here, the same is when you write. Do you have a feeling for the pain that your reader or customer is going through? Does your writing touch their lives? They could be dying of cancer. They could be overweight or stressed to the limit. They could be on the cusp of facing extreme financial hardship.
One thing that did touch me this week was a woman on Facebook asking for people to tell her about a place to rent. She had to leave her place with her partner and young child, and it is difficult for her to find a property of similar size and cost. Property rentals have jacked up in the coastal area where she lives. ?It wasn’t only her plight that touched me, but also the sincerity of her request that she was making. One could almost feel that this was a good woman who was in a difficult situation, and she was humble enough to go on to Facebook and ask for help. I certainly hope that someone does help her and that she finds a place to stay.
So what has this to do with your writing?
If you feel you need to write more effectively by touching your readers, let me know.