Absurdity of "writing for yourself"

Gonna 101% disagree with you there m8. As long as you're proud of your work, You've succeeded. 

And hey, I've written self indulgent fanfics before, those were pretty much only for me, But people still enjoyed 'em.

The point of writing for yourself is really in how your enthusiasm should make it through to the page.  People respond well to enthusiasm.  A weaker story written passionately will usually come across better than a skilled piece taken as a half-hearted commission.

It is important to keep your reader in mind.  I'd amend the "write for yourself" with "write for yourself, but through the lens of another."  You know what's going to happen.  You know what everything and everyone looks like.  But every writer needs to take a step back from themselves and be sure all that has actually made it onto the page.  You'll know you're doing it correctly when you begin to surprise yourself.  Think of yourself less as the author and more of a filter.  Things you may not even like may make it through.  Be open to changes.  Be open to things you didn't think you'd ever want to explore.  Just as a good writer should be able to create believable persona's that are different from their own, a good writer should be able to see their work as others might see it.

"If there is no feedback, it means that you failed. Really. It's much more constructive to critique the weak or dull places in the story, rather than repeat for 1001th time the proverbial write to yourself."

I'll agree that "write for yourself" is not good feedback when you've already done exactly that.  Have you actually gotten that for a finished work?  I've given it myself, but only to aspiring writers- as a response to the oddly frequent question of "what should I write."

I'd like to say lack of feedback doesn't mean you failed, but I'm guilty of that thought as well.  Certainly you succeeded in writing something you're proud enough to put out there which does take courage.  But even the most self-proud author will have their outlook dampened when the story is met with silence.  It is what it is, but it certainly makes it harder to go back to write another, even if it is only for oneself.

Feedback is so important, that's undeniable, but it should never be the prime motivator for why someone is going to publish something. It becomes a demand for attention at that point. By that route writing doesn't become the scratching at the creative itch inside, writing becomes lifting up your skin in anguish so other people can potentially stuff candy and confetti inside you.

My self-writing is so unpolished, so focused on only my tastes, that if I were to publish them I'd have people turning away from me in confusion. And yet, what I have published is admittedly so few and far between that I can't possibly gain much of an audience - because I do in some regard write for an audience. Structure out a narrative, ground myself in recognizable fetish tropes. The process is so sluggish and the task so meticulous that I don't produce much in the end. No one really knows me as a prolific author, and on the same token I have no reason to keep continually trying to impress a small audience. I write for myself just fine, much more than I should if I really had the desire to be acknowledged.

The struggle to be recognized, I realize, is to prepare to be disappointed by the amount of exposure in the beginning and slowly, if you've got the right stuff, building that image for yourself. Imagine being a masochist and beating yourself with the blunt object - write for pleasure because you're into that sort of thing - and when the candy and confetti comes out of you then you can revel in the people scrambling to gather it all up. Just make sure to injure yourself in a public space.

sorry for the extended piñata metaphor btw - had a Halloween party on my mind.

Not talking about my own inflation stuff so much as other things I've written and done, but I think it's a question of writing for yourself but being lucky enough to have common ground with other people that it engages them too, and I don't think that's easy to fake or manufacture.  Or, you could write for yourself and find what appeals to you fails to interest other people, or write for others and fake it, but I think people would probably find that less appealing without necessarily being able to put their finger on why.  On the other hand, feedback is very useful, even if you are writing for yourself.

I think I need to make my point clear because saying "seconded" doesn't really help clarify what my idea is.

I always "write/create for myself" and in doing so, find people of like mind. Without the risks of doing so, I'd never have met the wonderful community members I've met.

That being said, the importance of your audience is a key factor, only if you desire it.

What are your goals for writing inflation stories?

If you set out with a goal of getting a lot of attaboys and gaining acceptance in the community for your work, and you don't get those things, then yes, you have failed.  And you will feel like shit because of it, because chances are you wrote a shitty story because people want to read shitty stories.  Many in this community don't want character development, innovative plots, etc., they just want something to get them off.

But if you just set out to write a good story that you like, it ultimately doesn't matter what feedback you get.  Sure, everybody wants to become popular and have other people like their work, but you have to learn to separate the quality of your work from the feedback it does or doesn't get.

News flash: if you are looking for a lot of positive feedback from this community, stop writing stories and teach yourself how to draw really, really well.

You should care about quality and expect, or hope for some appreciation of the audience.

How about quality question and some appreciation to answerers ^_^ But yes I agree publishing is not the same as writing ^_^