Is the writer purposeless without the reader?

I do love it when people come to me asking to read my script, and more so when they give me honest feedback and when they enjoy it, it makes me very very happy. Just last week I met with a friend I haven't seen in 4 years, we spoke for a while and she expressed so much interest in reading the script, it literally made my day.
Of course I also get slightly upset when someone, like my parents for example, don't want to read it or can't find the time... then again, they barely know any English and I write in English lol
I did publish a few shorts scripts and poems online and I love seeing the reader count rising lol

However, I don't think the writer is purposeless without the reader, personally I do it for me, first of all. Right now I'm not making money from it (I work in another field), I might never make money from it - I'm prepared for such fate. It's a dream of mine to have something produced, of course, and I do daydream A LOT... I will keep taking on small jobs so I can keep writing and try my luck in this field. But right now just the writing itself frees something deep inside that otherwise, depresses me. I find an escape in my writing and that's the main reason I do it.

The writer is purposeless without a story. An audience is just an option. The story is not.

I can relate, definitely. I write to make people feel stuff; if they don't read me, I can't accomplish my purpose. But attention is a scarce resource, and there's a lot of competition for it, so it's better to get used to not expecting all that much of it, at least until you hit that sweet spot where you somehow tap into the Zeitgeist and are finally discovered as relevant and remarkable.

Possible coping strategies:

1) Do you like reading yourself? I do, generally speaking, which is sometimes really the only consolation, when I just can't manage to interest anyone in some piece of my writing. I like to revisit my own stuff once in a while, even if I come to think of it as ill-conceived and clumsy, because I generally retain some idea of what I was trying to do at the time and usually still find it at least worth the attempt. Every old text is like a skin I've shedded, and when I'm in a sentimental mood I like to try on those old skins again and remember a person a I used to be. And sometimes it's not pure nostalgia either - it might make me rediscover something about myself, some dried up longing, some long repressed rage, that I'd have almost forgotten at my own peril otherwise.

Sometimes of course, it's just embarassing and I can only wince at my own pretensions at the moment of writing. But usually the faint hope that, not matter how terrible I'm now, I'm at least no longer as awful as that, is enough to cheer me up again. So I always find some benefit in rereading myself.

2) Blogs, and the various other options for online-publications, as mentioned by so many others before me. Alas, posting something on your blog really doesn't necessarily mean that someone else will read it and the same applies to all those other shiny new options of self-publishing.

Blogs are well suited for short, quippy pieces, but when it comes to anything longform, other venues might be more likely to actually get you some clicks and likes.

which brings me to

3) Fan Fiction. It's a lot easier to find an audience for stories with already established characters in an established fictional universe, especially if you include some juicy bits featuring a popular pairing. Readers are often more tolerant of beginner's mistakes and more ready to take a chance with new unproven writers in this area, as long as your story hits a sufficient number of their particular sweet spots. But of course that doesn't have to stop you from providing a lot more! You can do a neat bait-and-switch, have readers come for the blatant fan-service and stay for the story. It's good practice, it might help you build a fanbase of regular readers who will also read your other stuff, once they've developed a taste for your writing and might increase your confidence in your own voice.

Immortal said:

The writer is purposeless without a story. An audience is just an option. The story is not.

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I so agree with this.

It's the story that insists on being told that matters.

Throw a party. Then tell your guests you have an announcement. As they all sit at rapt attention, read an excerpt to your friends. Don't tell them you are the author. Or do. Whatever makes the party more fun.

Most people like this better than vacation slides or videos of their kids last soccer game. If you ply your guests with alcohol first, the feedback is likely to be more honest.

Or just blog. But that audience isn't nearly as receptive as people trapped in your home by social etiquette.

It depends on what you're writing for. Some write purely for therapeutic reasons, and they don't feel purposeless at all because it helps them. For me, I'd feel useless without the readers, without even one. I write for them, and I'll keep writing for them, until I can get even one to notice me. So I suppose no writer is purposeless, but we can be made to feel that way, even though it isn't true.

ap123 said:

I write to be read, so I continue peeing in the wind pursuing publication, by working on my craft and sending out submissions--when I can find my raincoat.

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The most important thing about this entire endeavor: Keep a sense of humor. It's the best defense for any writer.

As for wanting to be read, it's not a major consideration as I sit down each morning to work. For me, it's the challenge of getting the ideas in my head (pristine and perfect) translated onto paper (neither pristine nor perfect). I tend to shut all other considerations out. It becomes a personal challenge.

It's only after I'm finished with a project that I think about anyone reading it. And then, yeah, it'd be nice if a zillion people read it. The only cure for that is persistence, practice, and putting yourself out there. Find every market you can and bring your best stuff.