Why write for an audience?
Ava and her Discord friends have a lovely collaborative post going: What motivates you to write for an audience?
I’m not on Discord, but since I love the topic, I thought I’d share my take on it from this side of the blogosphere (still not sure if that word is considered boomer these days).
Community
For me, the first thing that comes to mind is community.
Just by being a blogger, you’re already part of a wonderful network of people. Over the years, I’ve made so many fantastic connections through blogging — both when writing in English and in Swedish.
Some of those friendships even turned into business ventures. Not that it was ever the goal, it just happened naturally. That’s just one example of how powerful and beautiful this fellowship can be.
Blogkins
Even though I’m no longer part of the business side of things, the friendships live on. And since I started blogging in English a couple of years ago, the circle of connections has grown even bigger.
Most of them aren’t “friends” in the traditional sense, but I hesitate to call them acquaintances. It sounds too superficial. They’re more precious than that, almost like a family.
Blogkin — maybe that’s a good word for this kind of relationship. A family of bloggers, always by your side, connected not by likes or follows, but by words that matter.
The nudge
Another big motivator for me is the extra little push that comes with having an audience. I don’t use any stats for my blog, so I have no idea how big (or small) the crowd actually is. But they say “three’s a crowd”, so…
Still, just knowing that someone out there might be reading gives me the nudge I need to actually write and hit publish. It also makes me want to put those words together in a way that at least makes them readable.
I don’t have to, of course — there are no paychecks or deadlines involved. But without that thought of “someone might read this”, I tend to get lazy and sloppy when writing privately.
It’s the connection. It’s the nudge. That’s why I write for an audience.
What motivates you to write for an audience? And what about others? Head over to the collaborative post on Ava’s blog and find out.