What if you learned that the purpose of writing wasn’t to change the reader or the world. What if the best you could hope for was that the long effort it took to write a book might one day fix some tiny bit of you. Even if no one else read the book, might that be enough?
I've known my answer to this question for a long time, but I love seeing everyone else's below. I'm not surprised they're all so different, or that there are some clusters of common ground. For whatever reason you all write, I hope it keeps giving you more of what you need.
Speaking for myself: I finished a book last year. It won't be out until next summer. Maybe a dozen people have read it. I'm of course glad more will. But if this was as far as it went, I'd be okay, because I was okay when there was no one. A weirdly helpful knowledge to have.
