Who Do You Write For?

Q&A With Shay Every Other Sunday

Some writers have specific people and audiences in mind when they write—and I don’t simply mean age groups or genre preferences of eventual readers, but what comes before that. Some (most) do it for themselves, but perhaps never even choose to publish because it’s not part of why they write or part of their goal to do anything further with what they write. People write for all different reasons and for all different audiences, maybe people they haven’t met or ones they imagine, maybe their significant other, a parent, friend, or children. Maybe they even write for a group of people they have a shared world or historical experience with. Who I write for is pretty simple, I suppose, but it’s something I have lost sight of from time to time and have given it more thought lately. It’s a different question than “Why do you write?” even though there is a lot of overlap between the two, especially for me.

Q: Who do you write for?

A: The short answer is myself. I suspect this is largely the case for every writer.

I have been writing from a very young age without even realizing I was, odd as that may seem, but writing is a pretty integral part of growing and learning for everyone. For me, it was crucial because I couldn’t speak in many circumstances due to my selective mutism. So, when I couldn’t speak I had to write instead. This was the beginning of writing for myself, simply as a way to communicate and be part of the world when it wasn’t possible to be verbally. Communicating, talking, existing seemed to be natural and a given for everyone else, but for me it had to come through a different outlet than my physical voice—my written one. This crosses over a bit into the reason of why I write—because I need to, for me.

I write to channel some of the intense emotions, feelings, and what I’m not able to express freely. For what I wish I was or could have done or said. For my younger fearful self and how that part of me has stuck around even when I don’t want it to. For understanding and realizing there are others who might be feeling the same. For a voice—any voice. I’m not writing for “people.” Of course, they come later and you can’t share your writing (if you intend to) without other humans reading it, and they are an integral part of the process once the stories are out in the world. But they aren’t the initial driving force for my writing—that’s all internal and emotional. And that’s also very easy to lose sight of, which has been happening to me often lately. I think every writer goes through the negative phases, letting the outside world cloud the purpose, forgetting why or who they write for in the first place.

Writing gives the ability to relive any situation or learn about new and imagined ones—negative, positive, or somewhere in between in tons of different ways because you get to decide and have control through your writing. That is so important to me as I often feel a lack of control and regret and am very hard on myself, especially about my difficulty speaking or the way I feel I “should” be. So, the opportunity to create what helps me understand this, or even be bolder and create characters and situations that are the opposite, is quite freeing and something of an escape. But, also, those parts of myself are what make me a writer in the first place—something else that gets forgotten quite often.

I started thinking more about this question of “Who do you write for?” and I initially didn’t think it was important or worthwhile because I knew I wasn’t ever writing for an actual person or group of people or even someone imagined, so it didn’t seem relevant to my own writing. But then I thought about how for me it’s deeply connected to why I write, and how maybe if we know who we are writing for it can open something up in sincerity of the work and keep us moving forward with the “who/why” in mind. The work will be much more compelling and truthful if it fills the need of expression within you rather than trying to cater to a specific audience before the words even come out. And knowing that the process started and ended with you alone, no one pushing you or guiding you on the way, is an important part of the connection with yourself.

For those who write for someone like their children (which I hear often from children’s book authors) or their significant other, they can probably picture them clearly, reading what they are putting down on the page as it flows from them. Though, I’d say almost every writer is doing it for themselves first even if they have that person in mind as the eventual reader or even the inspiration behind the words. I’ve never had that experience, but it could be a worthwhile exercise to picture myself in certain moments of the past and how much that past self needed the words I’m writing now. I have been doing this a little bit with my new poetry collection because it is largely focused on my selective mutism, so I have had to go back in time and tap into those emotions and even picture myself in memories as a child.

We all know writing can be cathartic and bring clarity and healing, but it can also help us to feel heard when we need someone to listen. Even if that someone listening is just another version of ourselves. Writing is an inward experience and feeds the mind and spirit before it can live outside. I often dismiss this and sometimes go into spirals of “What’s the point?” if I’m only writing for myself anyway, but it’s as important a reason to write as any, and one none of us should take away from ourselves.

Who do you write for? Is a different answer entirely than why you write?