Writing for the Wrong Reasons

I knew it would hit me at some point. If any of my posts succeeded from a metrics perspective, I knew I’d have to wrestle with this decision that I now face.

Should I write what I know will succeed or what I know will satiate my curiosity?

They’re not mutually exclusive, but they also aren’t necessarily aligned either.

A few of my recent posts have, at least by my standards, taken off. I normally average a couple hundred views per post. But I’ve had a few fly upwards of thousands of views – the most recent of which hit 7K views in just under a day.

The diliemma I now face – knowing that certain types of posts objectively perform better – is whether to tailor my writing towards that content or continue to simply write about what interests me regardless of its breakout success potential.

As I thought more about this, I realized I was drawing comparisons to other aspects of life and culture. The essence of the thought being that once we taste a level of success or validation, do we change our behavior to act in a way that creates more chances for us to feel validated or successful? Is that so wrong? Or should we push back against the validation addiction and continue forward on our own path without altering our course based on the positive feedback of others?

Why do you write? Is it for the right reasons? Is there even a right or wrong? For now, I’m keeping this urge at arm’s length.

I’d love to hear your thoughts.