“Build it, they will come” applies to writing, I think

I’m yet to see the movie where this quote comes from. Field of Dreams starring Kevin Costner apparently.

A couple of years ago I discussed a potential project (a tennis academy in Southern California!) with a business acquaintance and he quoted these words. I found them very profound!

In blogs with writing advice, I see a lot of recommendations about discovering what readers want or some variation of this advice — say, providing value to your audience.

No, fuck that, I’m not doing that. It’s the other way around. The audience that sees value in what I’m writing will come to me, albeit not immediately.

I’m just starting my writing journey and I don’t mean to be arrogant.

I’m experimenting a lot and writing on many topics, some fairly serious notes on Russia (I’m Russian!), some are light-weight satirical trash. Of course, I observe what gets more traction. But it barely affects my choice of what to write about. I write about what’s close to my heart and that “close to heart” can vary greatly, even within a single day.

Because I am the starting point, not my readers. I’m THE CREATOR.

This is by the way different from business, where you can “pivot”. You hypothesize about or discover some “pain” or “problem” in the market and you create something to address that problem. If your product doesn’t work (no product-market-fit — unfortunately, I know intimately all these…