How do you write what people actually want to read?
I write because I want to write. Even if I am the only one who reads it, that is enough. In fact, more than enough. Any count more than one is life's bonus. A gift.
Rilke told his young poet to ask whether he must write. I only ask whether I want to. To write for readers is to make writing a means. I have never much bothered about social media algorithms. The moment means become only a way to reach ends, we stop living. Only when the means are ends in themselves is life fruitful.
Viktor Frankl once told his students that success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue. So too with readership.
In 2024, a publisher told me, with some derision, that he would publish my book if my blog ever reached 5,000 hits in a year. That year it touched around 4,700. Then I stopped bothering. I got immersed in the zendo and in zazen. As I write this note, this year's count stands at over 12,000. Somewhere along the way, WordPress sent me a note that kokorozendo.life now has readers in 50 countries. It all started with one reader, in one country.
Perhaps that is also, quietly, what people want to read.
