Write what you want to read?

It is often said that you should write what you want to read. On the face of it, this makes pretty good sense, if only because it will hopefully increase the satisfaction you get from writing the thing in the first place. But is it advice you should always stick to?

I would suggest that, as with so much other advice about writing, it is best taken with a pinch of salt, because it really depends. It depends on what you want to write and read and where you want to go with your writing. Writing what you want to read purely for your own amusement is different to if you are writing with the aim of getting a career out of it.

One of the benefits of writing what you want to read is that it will, with any luck, be full of passion. With a bit more luck, it will lead to you writing something new and interesting that only you could have written, because no one else’s mind works in quite the same way. With even more luck, the book that you want to read will also be a book that other people want to read.

However, if you aren’t quite so lucky, writing what you want to read could involve a couple of pitfalls. One big one is that you run the risk of writing something that is purely an exercise in wish fulfilment – if you’re writing just for the fun of it, that is absolutely fine, but if your goal is to write a compelling and believable story, it isn’t always the best thing to do.

A good story should always be the goal of the writer, no matter your reasons for writing. While what you want to read might very often be a good story, this isn’t always guaranteed. Then again, writing something you know you will like is always a good place to start – a good a place as any.

What do you think? Do you always write what exactly you want to read, or do your stories end up taking you to other places?