Hey, so I’m a sucker for debates, so I’m starting a new one! Firstly- there are some rules for this thread.
Keep things civilized.
Respect other people’s opinions.
That’s all! None of us like a, what could’ve been an interesting debate, to turn into the next world war.
Do you believe we should write for ourselves or our readers? Writing for yourself entails writing purely for you. Writing what you are passionate about, writing about what inspires you, what you want to write. Writing for readers is writing what you think the readers will like. Even if you’re not too keen on the plot, if the readers love it, you’ll write it. Writing for yourself doesn’t mean you completely disregard what others say, though, just as writing for readers doesn’t mean you blindly rely on what your readers say they want.
100% our readers. One of my absolute pet peeves are stories that don’t have enough effort put into them, but they had the chance of potential. (Overused cliches, spelling mistakes…)
I want to write stories that make others happy, by giving them quality chapters. e.g.
The cons about writing for yourself are that you may tend to become a bit selfish. You also tend to value your readers less. It’s because you are not very concerned about their opinions/constructive criticism. You get so caught up in writing what you want to see happen that you do not care about what your readers want to see happen.
The cons of writing for your readers is that you may get so caught up in pleasing others that you lose your motivation, and writing isn’t really something that you love doing anymore. The story does not feel as if it’s your own and may feel more like a task instead of a hobby. Because if you completely going off of what the reader wants, Is it still your story? And another thing some writers develop connections with their characters but if your readers want them to change…How can you maintain that connection?
I’d say make it a balance of the two, and most importantly make sure that your story is something that you love doing! Because when a writer loves writing a story the story is more enjoyable for the reader to read
always write for yourself. when you write dont think what do my readers want. dont think will this be populare . think is this something i wanna write. writhing is for you not them they are just alowed to read it. this is your book not theres, if you pick your readers happinies over your own you will end up with a book you dont like . i tried that makeing a story to make writers happy instead of myself and i ended up hating that story because it was not thing i wanted to write anymore
i think writing to get readers and your readers writing for you needs to be differentiated.
writing to get readers is just including what you know will get people to click on your book. you still decide what you write here.
your readers writing for you is when your readers bully you into making the plot go the way they want. you start to lose sense of your own voice here.
personally, i think both of these methods to writing aren’t that great.
that’s mainly because readers don’t know what they need to read.
Epsiode’s audience is teenage girls so most of your readers are teenage girls. teenage girls are in a part of there lives where they are still learning and can be easily influenced. they don’t know any better so they continue asking for “romance” books with gangs and bad boys that show toxic relationships. if you write to why readers and feed them this sort of content, you could be teaching them that toxic traits are okay in a partner and you can change the bad boys in your life.
i think authors should write either for themselves or for their readers. and by that i mean they should write the stories their readers need to read. stories with strong female leads that teach them it’s okay to look different, or to be single.
I think we should both write for ourselves and our readers. We are the authors, and they are our readers. We give, take and they give and take as well. We have to maintain that mutual relationship as authors. However, we have to enjoy the giving and taking too. Otherwise we won’t find the joy in writing.
I think a common mistake I see people make is they start writing solely because they want to be “episode famous” like their favorite authors and are quickly shown a harsh reality.
You should write what you enjoy and what entertains other people! If you have zero interest or passion in bad boy pregnancy stories, then don’t write it just because it’s a cash cow around here.
If you are passionate about pirate versus ninja action stories, write it with entertaining an audience in mind!
If we only write for ourselves, we may as well not publish our stories, if we only write for our readers then we won’t even have a cemented story line.
I think we should always write for ourselves no matter what.
If you are not enjoying or liking the story you are writing then there is no point in making it.
I’ve put a lot of pressure on myself trying to mold my story idea into something I feel will be successful and please others, but in doing so I am deviating from my original vision. So I’m choosing to write for myself to put out a story that I will be happy with no matter the outcome. Doesn’t mean that I don’t care for my fans (once I have some) It just means that I pursuing whats best for me as an author.
personal thoughts Writing, on Episode or in the standard medium, is healthiest when you write for the joy of it. If all you’re thinking about is how many reads you’re going to get, this gets spoiled.
My own suggestion is to write a story you would like to have read yourself, or simply write something you imagine a loved one would enjoy reading.
people need to write for themselves or write things that are good and not brainwashing for the audience to read 
