Write For Yourself

Why do you write? Whom do you write for? Cyril Connally said, “Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self”.

When you write to please yourself, you’re likely to be more creative than if you try to write for others. When you write for your own pleasure, rather than for profit, you may find that you’re more successful. The reason may be found in one word: passion. When you write from inside, when you let your thoughts flow onto paper, your readers will see that.

On the other hand, Angeles Masretta said, “There are many people who say, ‘I write for myself.’ I think that if you write and publish, then you write for your readers, not just for yourself. Many writers say that they write to be loved. I place myself among those writers.”

Clearly, if you intend to sell your work to an specific audience, you need to write with those readers in mind. You need to “talk: to them. However, think of it this way. Suppose you had one, or a few, of them in your living room. When you talked about your subject, would you set out to bore your guests? Or would you speak with some level of passion, from mild to exuberant? That’s the idea here.

Obviously, there may be an occasion when you write for others. Some people do that on a regular basis. They fall into two categories: 1) those who write for others voluntarily (e.g., freelancers, ghostwriters, people who work for hire), and 2) those who are forced to write for others (e.g., students, people who write reports for work, and so on). In either of these cases, here’s a secret: Take a few minutes before you start writing to find something – anything – in the work that you could be passionate about. Even if this isn’t your dream project, the more you can put yourself into it, the more successful you’re likely to be.

Conclusion

Whether you’re writing for yourself or for someone else, remember this: Have fun in your writing. If you do, your readers will pick up on that, and they’ll think that you wrote for yourself.

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