Challenge yourself

When you compose a weblog post intended to challenge the reader, who is the idealised adversary you have in mind? Who are your arguments and counter-arguments being addressed to? I suggest that since it is an internal dialogue the reader/adversary is yourself.

Whilst you compose your argument the reader is absent. The reader must therefore be a hypothetical one conceived of by you, the writer. And in the writing of your arguments you will need to pre-empt the responses of that hypothetical reader. The hypothetical ripostes you anticipate from this hypothetical reader are in fact created in your own imagination... they evolve from your own ideas. You pose an argument, anticipate a counter-argument, and compose a response to this. Therefore it is you who is the Hypothetical Reader. You challenge yourself.

[tag: writing]