I struggle with calling myself a writer.
I am not a formal writer. I am not an academic one either. Even though I’m starting master’s program I’m starting soon, I hesitate to call myself a “writer”
But I love writing.
I love thinking on paper and screens. Writing helps me clarify what I am actually thinking. Most of the time, I am not writing to anyone. I am writing with myself.
Marcus Aurelius did this in Meditations. He was not writing for publication. He was thinking, and the work survived.
Even now, as I write this, I am not imagining readers. I am translating what is in my head onto the screen. The audience comes later, if at all.
Rick Rubin puts it simply:
“ The audience comes last. I’m not making it for them. I’m making it for me. ”
That is how I work.
The first draft is for me. No pressure. No performance. Simply clarity.
Only in the editing do I think about my one true fan. The single person who might need to hear this. That shift helps without turning the work into something hollow. I am not writing for an imaginary audience that may never show up.
That is what the title means.
Do not write for an imaginary audience before writing for yourself.
Write for yourself first.
There are exceptions. If you know exactly who you are speaking to, and you know what they need and why, then write to them . That is not imaginary. That is intentional.
This applies to more than writing. Video. Design. Music. Any form of making.
Create from clarity first. Then let others follow.
The real reason I care about this is simple. I want people thinking more.
Not optimizing. Not performing. Not outsourcing their thoughts.
Writing is not about sounding smart. It is about knowing what you think before asking anyone else to care.
