Why I’m Okay Knowing My Friends Don’t Read My Blogs ? (It’s not for them anyway)

I used to pass along nearly every rough draft of my articles to my family and friends so that they can read it all before I published or submitted them.

I figured if they liked it, then other people would like it too, right?

And I figured that they would give me their honest opinion because they wouldn’t be afraid to hurt my feelings since they’re close to me. But, whenever I passed it onto them, then I’d have to wait for them to actually read it and give me their feedback which sometimes took a little longer than anticipated.

After all, they have lives too.

Lately, the volume at which I am writing is far exceeding the rate in which they’re able to read everything in the time frame that I’m hoping for. And then, I realized a few things about having your family and friends critique your work.

My friends are not my editors.

They don’t have to read, edit, and approve every single piece of content that I create. They’re not on a strict work schedule to read my writing. I’m not paying them to do this.

Sure, I’ll still ask for their opinion on which headline sounds better every now and then, but they don’t need to read every single thing I write — That’s not their job.

They’re not entitled to deciding whether or not something I write gets published and they’re not the appropriate judges for deciding whether or not it’s actually good.

So, I stopped sending them my drafts.

And since then, I’ve felt a lot better about putting the accountability back in my own hands rather than waiting for them to tell me whether they liked it or not.

I’m not writing for my friends. They don’t have to be interested in everything I write about. They’re not obligated to like/share every single post. Just the same as a tweet or a photo shared on Instagram, they’re not going to see and like everything that’s posted. And i won’t stop being friends with them because of that ,  i wouldn’t be mad at a friend just because they didn’t respond to an article i shared.

Now, you’re probably thinking,

“Okay, well clearly you don’t have very good friends.”

That’s not true at all.

I’m intending to target the people who genuinely read my writing often, not just that my friends.

I remember, Jonathan Greene wrote a great article where he said :

“Your target audience consists of people like you. Writers. Readers. Not your friend from middle school who thought Catcher in the Rye was stupid.”— Jonathan Greene

And it’s true. Your friends are not frequently using and checking Blogger every day like you are. They’re not the ones who are giving you claps at the end of the day.

And to be honest, my friends are probably not even going to read this article either, but that’s okay.

I’m okay with it because it’s not intended for them.

Instead, it’s for YOU

whoever you’re reading it right now. I’m writing this for people like you who care about this and I whole-heartedly thank you for showing an interest in my writings/blogs. It truly means a lot.

From knowingly yours,

Nandi :”))