Yo, just kidding. I'm not about to write a whole dissetration on this topic. 

I just want to address something that I see a lot as an author on many different sites.

I see authors straining to please others rather than please themselves. And that's not writing should be. 

Writing is an author's way of displaying their inner thoughts, demons, feelings, and expectations of life, love, and loss to the word (and that's just in the most general sense). Writing can be lyrics, poems, haikus, ten pages of profound existentialism, or one page of minimalist dialogue. A writer can follow in the footsteps of Whitman or Steinbeck. They can use a thesaurus and find all of the biggest, most loquacious words in the world, or they can use the most simplistic of synonyms or homophones. 

When an audience begins to define a writer, the writer loses his or her essence. They are no longer writing from within themselves, but they are writing from the outside, catering to an audience that--although supportive--will sap their creativity.

This is not to say that an author cannot use the support from an audience to keep writing. It just shouldn't be the only thing keeping an author writing. 

Because writing is a self-examination. Every time you put a pen to a slice of paper or a finger to a key on a laptop's keyboard, you are going inside of yourself to criticize the inner; the things that make you, you. In that way, writing is extremely fulfilling.

Every single story on AFF and other sites of fiction are good stories as dictated by the inner, by the you that writes them. You might only write 100 words and call that a story; it is if you feel fulfilled. If your story becomes popular, then you have communicated and connected with the masses who see themselves in you. And that's what writing should be.

TL;DR - Write for yourself and not for others. A moving, powerful piece will attract the masses. Just don't compromise yourself to make that happen.