Every book and website on writing says you must write for yourself, and they’re right.

Every smart marketer says you must write for your readers or you’ll lose them, and they’re right.

It’s a tightrope, and you have to walk it, because they’re both right.

If you don’t feel an overwhelming passion about what you’re writing, all the time, you’ll create pablum, or something even less tasty. Care deeply. Flail about with wild abandon. Write without caring whether anyone will ever read it, because it simply must be said. (It’s been said, perhaps by Hugh Macleod, that the best way to get approval is not to need it.)

The moment you start writing in order to please someone else, you compromise. You tone things down to avoid offense.

You namby-pamby your way to the oblivion of boredom.

State strong assertions because great googlymooglies that’s the way it is!

And, all the while, make sure it’s always about the one person you know your readers all care about: themselves.

Imagine this all-too-common example of selfish passion, unselfishly directed: a close friend recognises a gift you have, and becomes frustrated that you’re not making the best use of it. Imagine their impassioned plea: “You’re brilliant! You have this amazing ability, and it’s going to waste! You could be saving lives, or at least minds. You have something people need desperately. You owe it to them to get out and share your wonderfulness.”

Okay, maybe not those exact words, but you get the idea. We can be completely overwhelmed with our own desire for others to be the best version of themselves.

How many people would be bored, let alone offended, by a diatribe like that directed at them? We all, secretly or overtly, want to be appreciated. Use your passion to hold up a mirror to your readers. Let them see an even better version of themselves, one which you know is achievable because your readers are the risen cream.

Selfish passion, unselfishly directed, every time you write. Change the world, that will.

Tomorrow: Episode 7—Ignore Me and Be Yourself