Ong and his Fictional Audience

When Ong says that a writer's audience is always fictional, I construe that he is making a thoughtful statement. I remember writing essays and short stories for classes or for fun, not knowing what my audience's reaction would be. The audience, meaning my classmates, were of different age groups and personalities. So I believe that an author IS writing for a fictional audience, because as you are writing you are thinking about a reaction. Its like the saying, for every action there is a reaction; you don't just write to bore people. You write to cause a reaction and intrigue the readers. With public speaking, as Ong proposes, there is a different affect and your audience is in no way fictional. As a public speaker you learn to adjust to your surroundings. Half the time when I speak in front of a large group, it never comes out the way I imagined. I changed phrases, my tone and sometimes even what I am talking about.