Is it unrealistic to try and have your work appeal to everyone?

My answer is yes. It is unrealistic.

Alan Moore has this collection of old essays called ''Writing For Comics'' in which he says he thinks it's too big and abstract to try and ''know your audience'', so he focus on one person. He writes it for this one person to like, and assuming we as human beings are not thaaaaat different from each other, that means other people might like it too. I feel like this is a pretty fair way to look at things.

Given the wide scope of an audience, it's impossible to cater to everyone's likes.
People have a variety of likes when it comes to what they read or view. And while people can have identical interests, there are certain aspects of a certain thing they'll like and dislike. Take for instance the X-Men. I grew up with the 90's animated show and have a fondness for that lineup. I don't particularly like the comics that are outside of that realm. But there are people who love the younger generation of mutants.

I think this can also be applied to creating. I took if from a chef (Marco Pierre White):
Create stories that you want to read. Not what you think others want to read, because your story has to be an extension of you. And if it's not an extension of you and you're doing it just to cater to others, chances are you won't find happiness from your craft.

Yes- you cant please everyone...the first & foremost point of making a work is to make sure it is something you will enjoy making; you cant promote it you have no passion or enthusiasm for it. You will find yourself loathing to invest in a work you have no interest in. Also, the minute you try to appeal everyone, the work no longer feels like your own...

yes

i don't really have much to say except that all taste is subjective; a person who likes bitter things probably wouldn't enjoy a caramel macchiato even if it is one of the best caramel macchiatos in existence.

very, very few people are all-encompassing in terms of what kind of art they like, so don't let the idea of trying to get mass appeal bother you that much.

Nothing will ever appeal to everyone, not just likes but cultures and backrounds. It is possible to get a lot of people to like your work but it's impossible to be intresting to everyone.

The best you can do to get a big audience is to make it as good as possible, then even if it isn't appealing, people will reccomend it. Of course it's not easy nor is there a clear way to make good stuff, What you can do there is respond to criticism

I think this is a false dichotomy! I disagree with your friend, but I also think it's unrealistic to try to appeal to everyone.

Ultimately I do agree with joannekwan, and I think she said it very well; I believe a lot in creating work you personally want to see. But it's not just harder to be motivated when you're just focusing on Producing What The Masses Seem To Want -- I think it can also make the work worse. Cutting off every part of your work that doesn't have mass appeal is a good way to kill what makes your work special and interesting. Focusing on themes or character archetypes simply because they test well with audiences can make them feel soulless if you don't genuinely love them. Readers can often tell when a story is just sort of guessing at what it seems like they probably like, instead of creating something from the heart that they can truly connect to.

But saying that work shouldn't just be based on the nebulous idea of "appeal to everyone" doesn't mean you must Only Focus On One Demographic. Simple real world example -- My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. It was obviously designed for small girls, but the creators talked about wanting to make the cartoon just as fun for the parents who would have to watch it along with their children, and they strove to make characters and stories that would be appealing to both groups. That doesn't mean My Little Pony was appealing to EVERYONE -- some people immediately see the simplified cartoon style or the kidsiness of a show that uses the phrase "cutie mark" unironically and immediately jump ship, and that's okay -- remove its cutesy and cartoony elements entirely and you'd just have a sorta bland kids show about horses. Remove some of the Power Of Friendship themes that older audiences can sometimes find cheesey, and you'd lose the heart of the show, the very thing that makes it "good" to the people who love it.

It was important that they stayed true to the show's heart, but it certainly didn't hurt them to have more than one demographic in mind while they created it. And I think that can be true for any story.

Yes, it is unrealistic. So many things appeal to certain groups of people while not appealing to others.

i think theres something to be said for intending your story to be for a particular demographic - young adult fiction knows its aiming at young adults, which influences the way the stories are told and the characters, to make them more relevant and more appealing to that demographic. media for women, while not only consumed by women, should aim for a female perspective (or ~female gaze~, wonder woman did this really well. i wouldnt say it was aimed at women in the sense that only women could or would want to watch it, i think thats a misunderstanding of demographics, but somewhere along the line it must have been acknowledged that the first female superhero movie would draw a considerable female crowd.)

but like, you dont need to do this? your story doesnt need to be for young adult women, or fifty year old men, or geared towards a particular nationality or background. most of the time your demographic will be 'people who also really like these things i really like and am writing about.' taika waititi said of writing his films 'if i like it, if i think its funny, then theres got to be other people who enjoy it too.'

youll never appeal to everybody, and aiming to will probably muddle your story to oblivion - a story shouldnt try to be too many things at once. but you can appeal to people outside of an expected demographic, for sure

The important thing about trying to appeal to certain audiences or aditional ones is to do it organically.

If you force yourself to aim to certain audiences by adding themes you are not interested in exploring, token characters you don`t care about just to appeal to certain audiences, forcing situations(like forcing a romance just because you think it will atract romance lovers), overusing/underusing certain characters just because a character is more "marketeable", it will reduce the quality of the story. And you will appeal to less people.

A story can be made more marketeable, but it should never sacrifice it`s quality to do it.

Sure a general audience but not everyone. And not everyone is into webcomics so that's also a factor. You know what they say, you can't please everyone.

short answer: YES
Long answer: YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES

yes and no.

a great example would be disney. disney is able to make movies for everyone. yet there will always be people like me that dont want to watch half of it because i dont want to watch baby movies.

if your going to go for stuff thats going to appeal to everyone, id suggest i give you some great examples of things for everyone done right:
ZooTopia
Repunzle (Tangled)
Steven Universe (honestly if steven wasnt in the show it would be more adult)
The old school Marvel comics
DBZ (Dragon ball)
Lucky Star
OK K O
Finding Nemo
My Neighbor Totoro
Shrek
Toy Story
Adventure time
Regular show
Cinderella
Gravity falls
Hey Arnold!
Avatar
The Amazing world of gumball
Spongebob
Nichijou

its okay to try and appeal to everyone if the aim is accessibility

though if you aren't passionate about the work, don't do it

that aside, you just have to understand that you arent going to appeal to everyone, aim for a broad audience that might share similar interests, not the whole world

I wouldnt say for everyone... but you can always do a very mainstream story aiming at a large ratio audience, like someone pointed out, having as model animated movies and shows. But still, not everyone like those.

It's okay to attempt to create a work that has wide appeal, but keep in mind that in trying to appeal to everyone, you are diminishing your comic as an art and risking it becoming more of a product - or maybe in a simpler way of saying it, if you try too hard to appeal to everyone, you will lose the soul of the comic, the thing that makes it intriguing and honest.

I would say the best way to go about this is to identify on already existing aspects of your comic which you find appeals to certain demographics, and then focus/capitalise on it, depending on what direction you would like the work to go.

Good luck

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Unrealistic? Maybe....
But if you feel passionately about that, give it a shot and see what happens. Thats kinda what creativity is about. Not just productivity and efficiency. It's reall about possibilities.

Yes, it's unrealistic. The same reason why my mom will never like Star Wars and my ex-girlfriend would always say anime is dumb without even watching 5 minutes of any anime =-)

Some people will judge your work without even trying it or judge it by their logic, "this is x, and all x aren't good."

Yes! The only person you should have your work really appeal to is you! Your the one making it, if others like it than more power to yeah but it's your work and it doesn't have to hit every little niche just to get everyone's attention!