Don’t Listen to Them, Write for Yourself

Writing for yourself doesn’t have to hurt the quality of your content

Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash

A lot of fellow writers will tell you that you need to write for your audience first and write for yourself second.

Some will even go as far as to tell you to stop writing for yourself entirely. They’ll argue that they didn’t reach success until they focused solely on the reader. They’ll tell you that the quality of your content will suffer if you even think about yourself while you write.

I’m not going to dismiss this advice as totally incorrect, because there can be a lot of value in putting your reader first. But here’s the thing: who you write for will depend on why you’re writing in the first place.

Consider your ‘why’

If you’re a business or brand first and a writer second, focusing on the reader makes total sense.

As a business, your ultimate goal is to get people to pay for what you offer (whether it be products or services). To achieve this, you need to apply effective content creation strategies that help you build brand awareness, connect with your audience, and show them that you understand their needs, desires, and concerns.

But if you’re like me, and you write for the love of writing, then you must think of yourself first.

Write for yourself

You see, if you write for the love of the art and the joy of connecting with others through words, then applying the reader-first technique will actually hurt the quality of your work. Why? Because you’ve taken yourself out of the equation and removed that essence of authenticity the reader wanted to get from you.

The reader didn’t come to read content from a lifeless robot. Yes, they came for the value you promised to provide, but they stayed for you and that unique ‘you-ness’ that only you can offer.

This is why so many brands are adding an adding a dash of personality in their content marketing strategies. Even they understand that readers don’t want to feel like they’re being sold to. They want to feel connected, now more than ever. That’s what makes the reading worth their time.