Question, Capt.
If you wrote something for yourself, with no audience to appeal to, what would you write? What could you write that would make you happy?
If you have an answer to that question, why the hell aren't you writing it?
You know, that's a good question, and I had to think about that.
Well, I would probably write a first person account about despair. The villain has the narrator and is psychologically torturing them. I would run into problems keeping myself from writing the narrator as having given in, where he starts laughing hysterically, or from overpowering the villain in some way, because I would want the narrator in a state of fear and hopelessness but I couldn't stand writing him/her fearful, hopeless, and powerless. It might even include quite a bit of inappropriateness, if you know what I mean. And then I would look back and be horrified at what I've done. There would be a mental conflict between what I consciously want to happen, the hero wins and get out of the situation or at least the story skips details; and what I subconsciously want, the hero falls into the deepest pits of despair, and that despair makes me feel alive (Yes, I've been reading White Rose). The only problem is that I couldn't stomach it. I would desperately want the hero to get out, just so that it ends. I love the strong emotions it evokes in me, and yet I have trouble handling them and watching the characters in those situations greatly bothers me.
(actually, it's utter desolation, despair, hopelessness, Sophie's choices, fear, basically any psychological torture you could imagine plus death.)
A lot of my writing decisions are devoted specifically to avoid falling into my own traps. If I didn't use Mokou, or even if I made it so that she could be contained, then I would have trouble stomaching my own work.
The opposite side of that coin might be Shoot the Moon, which I did write for myself, and actually contains many chapters I haven't posted yet because I don't think they're good enough, even though they're good enough for me. It's chaos, randomness, and frankly I wouldn't want to read the unedited version myself. That's the other side of me, the one that doesn't want anything to do with the so-dark-I-upset-myself stories, the side whose stories I wouldn't be scared to have a record of on my computer.
Personally, I'd rather write a piece of fiction that I enjoy reading and writing for myself before selling out my personal work for viewership reasons. Sure, I want to entertain people. But I'm also entertaining myself and trying to get my messages through in my writing, and if the readers don't like that, there are plenty of other fics out there they can read.
Would you sacrifice your art for the transient tastes of others? Are you the type of person who would make a terrible summer blockbuster that rakes in a lot of money or a niche art film that touches the hearts of the few viewers who see it? Who are you trying to entertain, and why? Who are you doing it for? What's the purpose of it all?
Viewership is important, yes. But it almost sounds like you're suggesting sacrificing technical quality and personal story direction in favor of this idea of "viewership."
Best answer right here. Write well, pour your own heart and mind into your work, and manage to entertain people all at the same time! I feel that as long as you create your works with personal conviction and feeling (and good quality ofc), you'll always find an audience that enjoys it.
Honestly? If I were being paid, it would be 100% for the audience. If it's a summer blockbuster, the fact that I think it's terrible doesn't change the opinions of the seven million other people who saw it. And the fact that I think the niche art film is great doesn't change the tastes of the people I'm trying to entertain. If it's for money, the job is to give people what they want to pay for. Heck, I don't even believe in art anymore. That is, I believe there are popular paintings, music, etc., classical music, liturature, etc., and that all has value. But the entire concept of a thing deriving value from something other than people is something I deeply detest.
And I have nothing against going for both viewership and making a work you can be proud of yourself for at once.
If it's for free, you can post it because you want people to appreciate your work, which is arrogance, or you can try to post something other people will enjoy, which is generous. Or you can keep it to yourself.