Who do you write for?

Last night I went to an interesting talk by Dr Kate Rhodes. She said that she wrote nothing but poems for a decade, getting poems shortlisted for the Bridport and Forward Prizes and having books published. She thought of a poem as "a bullet to the heart", something that had to be written. Then she went on to write about 20 thrillers and YA novels, including 2 series. One of those novels was self-published because the publisher didn't want to continue the series but she did. That novel got the best Goodreads reviews, she thought. She's also ghosted books with non-disclosure agreements. It seems to me that she's covered the spectrum of answers to the "Who do you write for?" question.

In Whom Should You Be Writing For? Yourself or Your Readers?, K.M. Weiland has "7 Reasons You Should Be Writing for Yourself" then "6 Reasons You Should Be Writing for Your Readers". I think it's quite possible for a writer to agree with all these reasons. She writes that "If you’re writing solely for yourself with no thought for the reader – or solely for the reader without tapping the purity and sincerity of your own artistic instincts – then your writing is bound to suffer". All that sounds useful. Someone added a comment that first drafts were for the writer, and last drafts for the reader, which also makes sense to me.

I think the viewpoint I find difficult to agree with (I've seen it online) is that writing for oneself is free and pure, the only alternative being to write for the market. I think that even if you're writing for yourself, there's likely to be an implied audience and self-censorship, and your writing will be influenced by the styles you've read. I think one can write with others in mind without pandering to market forces. I think I most often write with readers of literary magazines in mind - me, friends, and people I've never met with similar interests to me.