It can be really effective to you make your art for an audience of one.
Mr. Rogers imagined he was communicating directly with a single child when he made his favorite show. Lin-Manuel Miranda recently shared that he sometimes writes with himself at certain ages in mind. And of course many artists have made their art specifically to a patron’s taste.
It works even if you never reveal who you made it for. Make the art for that one person, and then send it into the wide world, without their name on it. That often works for my daily writings here, but it also works for my commissioned works: I have a specific person’s taste in mind as I write, or just someone I want to please with the work.
Writing for the world can be big and scary; writing for one person–one person you know, trust, and admire–can make the work more concrete and real. And better.