Writing for Yourself

AKA Writing For Others

I have to write documentation for clients at my day job. I want to write narrative stories for other people to enjoy. In both cases, however, I am also writing for myself.

when you look at me that way

J.K. Rowling said she didn’t necessarily set out to write a children’s book; she wrote a story she wanted to read. I believe a lot of authors feel the same way, and that is what makes their stories interesting and captivating, because they themselves are interested and captivated by it.

If you don’t enjoy what you are writing, the reader will know. They will see it in the two-dimensional characters and feel the lack of energy of the plot and pacing.

You owe it to yourself, and your reader, to write what you want to write about, what you are passionate about, what you want to share with the world. Because if it matters to you, it will matter to someone else out there.

Every now and then, one of those readers will tell you how much what you wrote meant to them.

At a recent conference, someone who reads this website told me how my Free Ideas page helped her with her own writing. I put up that page to keep track of snippets of story that float through my head, and websites that inspire ideas. I wrote the copy on that web page for myself, as a reminder that any idea can be interpreted many ways. The fact that it also resolved a problem for that reader is proof of the shared connection of humanity.

And that what you care about for yourself, will matter to someone else.

Doctor Who: Look at these people: These human beings. Consider their potential. From the day they arrive on the planet, and blinking step into the sun. There is more to see than can ever be seen. More to do than – No hold on… Sorry, that’s the ‘Lion King’. But the point still stands.
- “The Christmas Invasion”, 2.0

May 4, 2010

Tags: reader  |  yourself

Categories: writing