Do you write what you want or what others want?

[edenwheeler]

Certainly! Writing is subjective, and it's important to find the right balance. You should primarily write about what you love or are passionate about, as this will reflect in the quality and authenticity of your work. However, keeping your audience in mind and occasionally catering to their interests can also help you connect with readers and grow your following. But remember, don't sacrifice your personal joy or interest for popularity. Write what makes you happy, and the right audience will come.

[LY_Rachel]

Certainly! Writing is subjective, and it's important to find the right balance. You should primarily write about what you love or are passionate about, as this will reflect in the quality and authenticity of your work. However, keeping your audience in mind and occasionally catering to their interests can also help you connect with readers and grow your following. But remember, don't sacrifice your personal joy or interest for popularity. Write what makes you happy, and the right audience will come.

I absolutely agree– if you write something you absolutely don't like, or aren't interested in, it just won't be as high quality as something you would like, or even just at least have a vague interest in. Following a trend of, for example, "YA Romance novel with happy, gushy ending" might get you easy points, but people will just see your book as another one of those books. I think people can just tell when your heart's just not in it. The general idea, outline, and plot of the book, imo, should be what you want. It's then up to the reader to decide if they like the premise or not, and well, you can't control that anyways. The premise and the story ultimately belongs to you.

But, the audience matters too. Storytelling is also about how well you tell the story. That means knowing your audience, and what they might be expecting. Making changes in your story for the sake of an audience is an understandable and reasonable thing to do. For example, a lot of stuff I write is existential and breaks rules (with purpose, of course), but sometimes I hold back on some of those choices and think, "Does this actually work? Does the message I'm trying to communicate have synergy with the way I've written this, and would a reader figure out what I'm trying to do here?"

It also depends on what your end goal is when it comes to writing, but generally, (for myself at least), I go by the rule, make it an enjoyable experience for both yourself and your audience.

[Peter N Obas]

For me, I wrote about what I want. I am not an author, I do not know if I will ever be one, but I wrote short stories from time to time. Most of these stories are about things that are going on in my head.

I have not published any of them yet, unfortunately. But I'm time, I hope to.

[Kirana Lin]

In the online novels industry nowadays, they cater to popular genres only. If you want to rise quickly, you need to follow the trends. I'm the kind of writer who prefers writing what I want and doesn't like cliches. If I have to limit myself like that, my passion for writing would fade away.

[Nimra Kiran]

I prefer writing what I want but knowing the world is changing and thoughts are becoming more and more diverse, so I guess you just have to mold yourself up in a way that you write what you want but also keep in view of the target audience to attract your writings.

[Okewunmi Pelumi]

Firstly, I write what I want, because I know what I want to write on, but might not know what others want.

[Okewunmi Pelumi]

I believe that what I've written will resonate with someone.

[Sahoor]

I've written quite a few stories myself, I don't think I'll enjoy writing what others have suggested to me because imagining the characters the way they do will be hard and I can't have a fully understandable story to myself. Stories created by my thoughts and imaginations are unique. Writing something that others want will be tough because you can't create the characters the way they want them.

Writting something that brings joy to you, that describes you or your mood is another realm.

[Sameeha Ismail]

I can't even begin to write what others want. Once my friend asked me to write an essay about a topic I was barely interested in. It came out like mush.

[Aroona Kashif]

Sometimes I write short stories for my friends. Once I wrote a sad one that actually made my friend cry which was awesome.

[Ludovica Peruzzi]

To me, writing is about self-indulgence. If I don't write exactly what I want, no one else will do it for me - and even if no one else reads what I wrote, at least I know I enjoyed writing it and can reread it whenever.