Is an audience really required to develop writing?

Question

I like writing, particularly on topics of realism and general self-help. Some of my posts are opinion-based, and some are emotive pieces. My attempt at sharing my work in Quora and Medium has failed miserably. My posts do not get appreciated (most of the times, they are simply ignored). I understand that getting attention is not supposed to be a goal, but it has negatively impacted me, hence I came here for advice: Should I quit these sites and just write privately, or should I mould my writing to suit what people want to read?

For me, writing is a fun way of putting my thoughts on a paper, and I enjoy it, but writing what people in these sites want to read is tiring, boring and difficult. I do not want to have a career in writing, I just want it to remain a hobby- So, to develop it, is an audience really required?

(I am not sure if this question is off-topic here. If so, a comment on where to ask this would be appreciated.)

Answer 1

If you are doing it for the enjoyment of writing, then just do it.

Write what you like, as you like, when you like.

An audience of real readers isn't required.

On the other hand, everyone likes a little appreciation now and again.

If you want appreciation, then you need real readers. To get real readers, you have to write things that other people want to read.

What you can do is to write things that interest you, and that you think may interest someone else.

If you write a post about the cool embroidery scissors you bought with the stork shaped handles, then you are addressing your own interest in those scissors - but you are also addressing the people around the planet who collect such things.

When you write about something that interests you, try to write it to address those people who may also be interested in that subject.

Take the embroidery scissors as an example. Merely writing that you bought a pair of stork shaped scissors won't interest many people. Mention that they are embroidery scissors. Mention what you've learned about the history of the shapes of such scissors. Tell about how you came across the one you have and why you have it.

Each detail adds keywords that the search engines will find. Each keyword means more people who will find their way to your blog. Maybe you bought your embroidery scissors at the souvenir shop in a castle in France. That detail might attract people who don't know about embroidery scissors but do know the castle because they intend to visit it on their next vacation - and now they also know about embroidery scissors because they read your mention of the castle.

What I'm trying to say is that you should write things that interest you but write so that it is also of interest to others.

As many people as there are in this world, you can bet that anything that interests you will also interest someone else. Address those shared interests, and people will (eventually) find their way to what you've written.

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As for being ignored:

Just because no one comments or otherwise interacts with your writing, it doesn't have to mean that no one is interested.

I've been writing a blog for the last year or so.

In that time, I've gotten a handful of responses (comments or "thumbs up.") Truly, no more than 20 responses.

That's disheartening.

On the other hand, I use the Google "Search Console" and the Google "Analytics" to see how often people visit my pages.

The "Search Console" tells you how many times people have found your pages using the Google search.

The "Analytics" tells you how many times your pages have been accessed from all sources. It also tells you how much time people spend on each page.

A summary of my blog for the last year:

1. 8940 page views.
2. Average time spent on each page: 2 minutes and 20 seconds.
3. 2650 clicks on Google search.
4. Less than 20 comments or other interactions.
5. 11.6% of the people who visit my blog once come back again later.
6. People who visit my blog view an average of two pages per visit.

If I were judging the "reach" of my blog by just the interactions, I'd have to say there's nobody interested in what I'm doing.

With the other sources of information, I know that a lot of people are finding and reading my blog. Since they come back, I also know that they find it entertaining or useful in some way.

I'm not writing a blog to be an author.

I started that blog because I write software in my free time, and I was disappointed in just how few people found it on GitHub. The blog started as a way to generate interest in my software.

I'm also active on the "Electrical Engineering" Stack Exchange. Many of my blog posts start out with someone asking a question over on EE. I'll often answer there, then do some further experiments (or make a gadget inspired by the question or the answers) and write a blog post about it. The blog post is then about something that interests me, and I know it interests at least a few other people because somebody asked and somebody else answered on the EE stack.

The blog is about things that I do. Most of the posts involve either software or electronics hardware (or electronics concepts.) I try to make them informative and entertaining.

At any rate, I'm not trying to be an author. I'm just sharing things that interest me with other people who may be interested in the same things.

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I do not know how Quora or Medium work, or what facilities they give you for monitoring how many people read your posts. I use GitHub Pages with embedded tracking from Google so that I can see real usage information.

Try seeing what statistics those sites can give you about your readers. You may be surprised at how many people actually read your stuff but don't interact with you.

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Something else you might try is to be more active on the Stack Exchange sites. There are many stack sites with different subjects. Maybe there's one that interests you. You can answer questions that interest you and ignore ones that don't interest you - and you know that at least one person is interested in what you write.

Answer 2

There's a third path between writing for a cruel and uncaring world, and writing only for yourself. Join a writer's group. There are both online ones and local ones that meet in person (during non-pandemic conditions).

I resisted writer's groups for years, but recently joined an online one (Scribophile). It's been tremendously valuable to me --it has dramatically advanced my ability to connect with an audience.

Answer 3

If you are writing as a hobby you should not write for an audience but for your own entertainment. But of course you can also seek out audience groups for your writing. I am for example interested in WW2 politics and found a group for it on Facebook (sadly, even with strict internal moderation the group got removed).

And I self write a lot of fantasy stuff (therapeutic) and my bestfriend read a few and really liked it. She does D&D and showed some to her D&D group and now sometimes I write stories for them. For me it was coincidental finding an "audience" perhaps the same can happen for you. But if not you can look for them on social media seeing there is pretty much a field of interest for everything on social media...but be warned...there will always be critics on places like that.

Because if you write things you don't like but other do it will eventually feel like a job and you might develop resentment towards your hobby.

Answer 4

Keep writing for fun if you truly enjoy it. If it has any value the audience will show up.

If you want fame or to make money then you might want to rethink how you are doing things.

You could do it as a blog or even self-publish it on Amazon as an e-book, which might get more attention.

NOTE: It is your job to promote and advertise your work so the audience will show up if it has any value. If your work is worthless then do not expect any results no matter what/how you do it.

Answer 5

If you're only writing for the fun of it than what's the point of having an audience? Especially when that audience is unappreciative.

I say write. Just write. You don't need to post it anywhere or show it to anyone (Although you can if you want to), just write. The only person who ever has to see your novels or short stories or whatever it is you write, is you. You don't need approval or attention or anything like that.

If you find writing what those people want to read boring then just don't write what those people want to read. Write what you want to write and don't worry about the rest of them.

Now I also noticed that you said you wanted to improve your writing. If you want to do that, an audience might be required, but not an audience like that. Get your mom, you dad, maybe your siblings if you have any. Get your friends and your teachers and see if you could get them to read over your stories and tell you what they think about it. Going online to Quora is unnecessary.

Basically just do what you love doing. If you love writing, then write what you love, if you love your stories getting no appreciation, then continue posting them on Quora. It's you choice.