This is a response to http://www.ponychan.net/chan/fic/res/101097.html#102536 ; I figured it would be too big to post there and not monopolize the thread.

I will preface this by saying that I am an amateur. My words are loose theory and wild speculation and are probably laughable to professors of literature. It's inevitable that as an opinionated and mildly perceptive individual, I'll have an opinion, and it will be expansive. It is only my own opinion, but since I'm a prereader and I'm responding to something you said, it's totally on-topic. Right? Whatever. You simply had the poor fortune to inspire me to rant about something. Please bear with me, I have a point.

>A story they want to tell to other people

This is perhaps the tragic flaw of our species: there are many who have something to say, and very few of them give much thought to whether it’s worth hearing. That’s certainly the case on FIMFiction.

You say that the reason most people write is because they have a story to tell. Have you considered why people read? Certainly, they want to hear a story, but nobody simply chooses stories at random. There are qualities that make a fic worth reading, and in my opinion there are four broad categories of stories; each is more desirable than the last, and each does something the one before did not.

The first category are the stories that people tell just because they have a story to tell, stories that serve no further purpose. They are boring, not worth reading and not worth talking about.

The second are stories that entertain. When one sets out to write something worth reading, this is the shortest hurdle; people want to read things that entertain them, that hold their attention. It is a relatively simple task, but it seems to be what separates the fics that do well on FIMFic from the ones that don’t. You will rarely see a fic in the FIMFic featured box that is utterly boring. Even if the humor is juvenile and the plot is cliché, things will be happening. The most entertaining of these will often make it onto EqD with no further literary virtue, and that’s just fine; sometimes people only want a bit of mindless entertainment. Note that even at this level, the writer needs to understand some things about the audience, even if that’s just an implicit understanding of what is and is not boring.

More difficult but more rewarding than that are the third category: stories that inspire emotion. The most obvious example is sad fics, the stories that can make their reader cry, but people have a whole range of emotions and any of them are worth exploring. Some fics are so bursting with life and energy and joy and humor that one can’t help but smile while reading them, and of course horror offerings can raise heart rates, inspire fear, and haunt readers even after they’re complete. These fics are very memorable when successful; the disgust and revulsion inspired by Cupcakes is legendary, and the sorrow and pain of My Little Dashie made it the most read fic of the fandom. Those examples were chosen to show the subjective nature of this level of value; these fics do not have the same level of impact on every reader, and the readers that don’t get it or don’t feel that emotional response won’t find any value in it, and will often loathe it. The emotions of your characters and the mood of our piece will only have an effect on those who can identify with them. At this level, an understanding of your audience (and I would go so far as to say ‘an understanding of human nature’) is essential, whether it comes from education, experience, or empathy.

The fourth category is the most difficult to write. The stories that are truly worth reading are those that challenge their readers, guide them, and leave them as better people. These are the stories with lessons to teach, stories that can give their reader insight into the world, their fellow man, or themselves. Of course, one has to ask what ‘better’ means in this context, and many of these books dedicate themselves at least in part to answering the question of why their way is better, or at least why other ways might be worse. These stories inevitably have a philosophy, and that is both their greatest advantage and their greatest flaw, because people who agree with the points of philosophy in these works will often find themselves utterly inspired, and the people who disagree will often loathe the story with a seething passion. That’s why these are often controversial in their time, whether or not they are later vindicated. Most of the classics of literature fall into this category. These are the Farenheit 451s, the 1984s, the Catch-22s, and yes, they are the Bibles and the Qurans and the Atlas Shruggeds and the Grapes of Wraths. These are the stories that move the world. People go to jail over stories like these, they fight and die over stories like these, they ban them and they burn them or they share them with anyone who will listen. These heights are far beyond the reach of just about any fanfic author, though some of us try. I believe that they require rare insights into the nature of man and society, and it goes without saying that they inspire emotion in those they touch, but I won’t pretend to know how to write a successful story of this type. I believe that, of all the fics in this fandom, Romance Reports comes closest to achieving this level of influence on its readers (Even if the lessons it has to teach are about something so petty as love), but there are a few others that have hints of this level of value.

Equestria Daily does not post the first type. Nobody wants to read a boring fic. The best of the second type can make it to EqD, and even achieve great success. Spiderses is a good example of this; not much literary value but plenty entertaining. The bulk of EqD fics are able to inspire some emotion in their readers while they entertain, even if that emotion is subtle. Yes, joy is an emotion too. A very very small minority of the fics posted to EqD attempt to incorporate elements of the fourth type, but they rarely do well; executed poorly, the fourth type of story is the weakest of all.

I do my best to write that third category, to make my readers laugh or cry or recoil in horror. I have tried to write that fourth type of story, but I will probably never have the skill to produce a work with even a millionth of the value of the classic works of literature. I will probably never make any of my readers a noticeably better person, and that disappoints me (though it certainly does not surprise me). That is why I can see the appeal of being a Drill Sergeant. I know that I improved more as a person in my three months at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego than in any year elsewhere, and I know that's probably true for a lot of recruits. Drill Instructors challenge their recruits, and guide them, and leave them as better people. The only difference between the great works of literature and your day job is a matter of scale; authors can simply reach more people at a time.

I suppose I ought to come back around to what sparked this. If you truly write just for yourself, just because you have a story to tell, you will never write anything worth reading. It wasn't until I stopped telling stories and started trying to touch people that I became a writer whose works are worth reading. I no longer think to myself "Wouldn't it be cool if..." or "I think _____ is an interesting concept, why don't I...". Now I ask myself "What does the reader see when he looks at this sentence? What is he feeling at this point in the narrative? How much does he identify with each of my characters? What does he expect to happen now? What is he envisioning when I describe this setting? How can I make him feel what I want him to feel about this character? How can I make him feel what I want him to feel about himself? What single line can I add to punch him in the gut, or the tear ducts, or the funny bone? What am I teaching this stranger? What does this story tell him about life?"

What makes your story worth reading? Everybody has a story to tell, few have a story worth reading. You may find your ideas entertaining, but do you present them in a way that makes them interesting to anyone else? Does your story inspire emotion, or merely express it? It's not about what stories people want to tell, it's about what stories people want to read. Your readers' enjoyment cannot be an afterthought or a side effect. It needs to be a goal. Otherwise, you're crippling yourself.

I tell stories, but that's not the point any more than the ink or the paper is the point. They're all just tools, a bridge between me and my reader. I consider selfishness to be a virtue, but I'm not ashamed to say that I write for my audience. Fanfiction is a medium, but when I make someone laugh, or cry, or lock their doors and turn on the lights, or lie in bed and come to a realization about the nature of their relationship with their deity... that's art. I've had commenters tell me that my fanfiction has done all of these things, and more, and it's the best damn feeling in the world. The petty knowledge that people are reading a story I wanted to tell is nothing in comparison. It's only possible because I do not have stories to tell; I have people to touch.

tl;dr: Pretention!