How do you write what people actually want to read?
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Short answer – I don’t have a clue what people want to read.
In terms of style, I’ll write as clearly as possible. Try to use good spelling and grammar to make the read easy.
But in terms of writing something that people actually want to read? What do I know?
I heard an interview with Benny and Bjorn, of ABBA fame, once. Bjorn (I think) said that they just sat down and wrote music they liked. That millions of people also happened to like it, too, was a happy accident. Those people provided that little piece of magic which meant that ABBA became a huge commercial success.
It’s broadly similar with writing. We take care of the basics – dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s (literally!), being as good a writer as we can be – but we still need that little sprinkling of pixie dust to find that niche subject, that niche perspective, that niche plot, that will spark people’s imaginations.
But let me ask a slightly different question.
How important is it to write something that people actually want to read?
At the WordPress level, people do this as a hobby. We (most of us) try to be as good a writer as we can be, but that’s just taking pride in what we publish, surely? Doesn’t everyone do that?
WordPress gives us the ability to follow people’s blogs, and we often find ourselves doing so because we have built up some common ground with the author. Not every post of theirs will be exactly what we want to read, but because of that common ground, we’ll cut them some slack. Whatever they write.
Even if it gets to the point that most of their posts end up being of no interest, so what? We unfollow the blog, that’s all. I’ve done it a million times, when deciding whether a blog is for me or not. What’s the big deal?
As far as I can tell, the only scenario when this question becomes relevant is in the narrow, commercial sense. If your livelihood depends on it. In other words, “I hope you want to read me, because then you’ll buy my work and I can put food on the table”.
So if you want to reduce things to a financial transaction, fine, but WordPress is probably not a good place to try to exploit that. And there are many more dimensions to writing.
What about for fun?
Hmmm. I enjoy playing with words. Transposing a thought into phrases that best speak in my voice. Yes, it’s lovely when someone leaves a thoughtful comment but I’m accustomed to minimal reader interaction. Ninety-five percent of people, including my husband, claim they hate poetry or at best don’t understand it. To that I say, “Not my problem.”
So there’s a thoughtful comment for you, Pete. 😆
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I write about things which interest and quite possibly preoccupy me. If my opinions are of interest and possibly even helpful to others then that’s an added (and appreciated ) bonus. But writing for financial gain? It would surely be nice if I could earn some extra money, but I would still ever only write what’s on my mind and give my personal opinion. From that perspective WP is great, as most people here don’t pursue financial gain from their blogs.
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