: Re: How to decide whether a story is worth writing? Sometimes I have inspiration for a story. In random pieces of spare time I daydream more and more details until I am satisfied with the concept

@LarsenBagley300

Vote Up Vote Down

Why do you write?

For fun? In that case every story is worthwhile as explored by most of the other answers.
For readers? In that case read on.
To improve yourself? In that case of course every story is worthwhile, but you need to act as if you are writing for readers.

What do you wish to achieve?

Now, personally I have always classified two different goals a work can typically have (actually three, but won't get into the third goal, as it's just too much of a hassle and not relevant now):

To share a message? Well, obviously you don't, but in that case it's always worthwhile to write the story if the message is important enough to you.
To make readers enjoy themselves/experience emotions they wish to experience and can't normally experience? In that case the question does become whether people will read it. Is the story unique and/or good enough that people will be willing to read it? Achieving this isn't even necessarily a question of skill. For example a lot of people write fanfics where the readership is higher than one would expect given the skill level of the authors.

So no, I disagree with the other answers which in my humble opinion sometimes give a slightly simple answer. Often it might not be worthwhile just writing any story you think of. If you want to become good enough to reach readers it is necessary to think about whether your story is unique and/or good enough. And yes, that might mean disregarding a lot of stories and changing others.

(0)

Login to post a comment!