What I Wish I Had Known About Building an Audience

The "Christopher Nolan Effect"

I was discussing a writer friend’s growth pattern for 18 months. His experience:

• Months 1–6 had minimal visible growth.

• Months 7–12 brought small, scattered wins.

• Month 13 and beyond delivered sudden breakthroughs.

This reminded me of how Christopher Nolan tells stories.

Nolan doesn’t tell stories in a straight line. Interstellar, Memento, Tenet: his films play with time in ways that only make sense when you step back and see the full picture.

Writing careers seem to work the same way.

Building an audience does NOT mean becoming a marketer

I’m a writer. Not a marketer who happens to write.

This distinction matters because I’ve seen talented people get paralyzed by marketing concerns. They literally stop writing because they think they need to “build a platform first.”

Your job as a writer is to write and edit. Everything else is noise.

When you create something that touches readers deeply, they naturally want to pass it along. That’s how real audience growth happens.

But let’s be honest: great work doesn’t market itself completely on its own.

You also need systems. You need to put your work where people can find it. You need to understand basic promotion.

The key difference is seeing audience building as a natural byproduct of great work, not separate work.

For example, when I spend all my time on marketing, I start hating the process. “I’m tired of writing,” is what I think. But the truth is, it’s the marketing part that burned me out, not the writing itself.

So focus on creating work so good that readers feel compelled to share it. This will keep you from burning out.

Then build simple systems to get that work in front of people.

This brings us to…

Focus on testing, not planning (or “aspiring”)

Too many writers get stuck in the planning phase. They remain “aspiring writers” for years.

You know what removes the “aspiring” part? The writing itself.

When I first started, I thought I wanted to write about productivity systems. Instead of planning a productivity blog for months, I designed three two-week experiments:

• Weeks 1–2: Wrote about productivity systems. Felt forced, got modest engagement.

• Weeks 3–4: Created work-life balance content. Moderate enjoyment, better feedback.

• Weeks 5–6: Produced content about writing life and realities. Felt completely natural, strongest reader response.

Had I “stayed consistent” with productivity content based on my initial plan, I would have burned out writing about topics I didn’t truly connect with.

Experimentation taught me what energized me and what readers actually wanted from me. Planning alone never could have revealed that.

Testing allows you to learn from reader feedback. You discover your voice by using it, not by thinking about it.

Here’s what you can do:

• Start publishing small pieces.

• See what resonates.

• Pay attention to which topics make you lose track of time while writing.

• Notice which articles get genuine reader response (emails, comments, etc), not just likes.

And then when you’re doing that, you’ll want to…

Avoid focusing on how far you have to go

Here’s the thing about audience building: As new writers/creators, we have a long way to go.

Some people get viral, land book deals, and earn serious money in their mid-twenties. Others start writing/creating in their late forties. Some have been writing consistently since school and still can’t make it their full-time work.

We all have different circumstances. None of us can predict exactly how far we have to go to “make it.”

So just focus on your next crucial steps.

The next article. The next submission. The next improvement to your craft. Make sure these are steps you actually enjoy taking.

When I shifted from thinking “I need 10,000 subscribers” to “I need to write this week’s article well,” everything became manageable.

Speaking of consistency…

“Be consistent” doesn’t mean “Do the same things every day”

Most writers hear “be consistent” and think it means churning out daily content forever.

That’s not consistency. That’s a recipe for burnout.

Real consistency means being consistent in the right direction. It means having a sustainable system that you can maintain long-term.

Early in my writing career, I made this mistake. I tried to write, edit, and publish something new every single day. Within two weeks, I was exhausted. The quality suffered. I started dreading my writing time.

Here’s what works better: productive writing is like meal prep.

• On weekends, I focus on reading.

• Monday, I brainstorm article ideas and write outlines.

• Tuesday, I continue with more outlines and maybe finish one article.

• Wednesday to Friday, I turn outlines into finished pieces.

I also have “editing weeks” where I only edit, not write new content.

This approach removes the mental switching between tasks.

You’re not trying to be creative and analytical at the same time. Your brain can focus completely on one type of work.

More importantly, you’re being consistent with a process you can actually sustain.

Remember that your readers are reading YOU

Not just your words.

For example, I talk about the “Christopher Nolan effect” in this article. That’s because I’m a huge fan of his work. See how my tastes and interests naturally blend with my writing?

When I reference Nolan, I’m not just sharing what I enjoy. I’m creating content that serves readers who share similar interests.

That overlap is where your audience lives.

Because the best writing happens at the overlap of what you love and what your audience wants.

Your breakthrough won’t happen on a predictable timeline. But if you keep focusing on the next step, testing what works, and staying consistent in the right direction, you’ll build something real.

Just remember: it might look like nothing is happening for months. Then everything changes in ways you never expected.

That’s the Christopher Nolan effect of audience building.