# Should Writing Be Enjoyable?



## Gamer_2k4 (Jul 7, 2015)

Let me begin by saying I don't take any pleasure whatsoever in the act of writing itself.  I enjoy designing and creating, and I very much like reading what I've written.  However, bridging the gap between those two states is dull, tedious, and unpleasant.  I assume that's just me, though, and that most writers here (and in general) do get some pleasure from writing itself.

That said, is there a link between prose that's enjoyable to write and prose that's enjoyable to read? I'd think so, but I've also found that some of the parts of my story I've been most proud of have also been the first parts to go in editing.  Furthermore, it's worth being aware that any book we read is likely the result of plentiful harsh edits and rewrites, more often than not at the direction of a third party (the publisher's editor), and most of what we consider "enjoyable" was anything but by the time it was finalized.

So, what's the verdict? Do you all enjoy writing, and, if so, do you find the parts you liked writing most are also the best parts of your stories?


----------



## Sam (Jul 7, 2015)

If I didn't enjoy writing it, how or why could anyone enjoy reading it?


----------



## Kevin (Jul 7, 2015)

It's called suffering for your art.


----------



## Gamer_2k4 (Jul 7, 2015)

Sam said:


> If I didn't enjoy writing it, how or why could anyone enjoy reading it?



I don't enjoy cleaning the house, but it certainly makes it more enjoyable to live in.  I'm guessing the people who put together the fireworks for this past Saturday didn't count it among their top ten activities, but I sure had fun watching them go off.  Why should writing be any different?


----------



## Terry D (Jul 7, 2015)

Most of us here are hobby-writers -- perhaps with plans and dreams of becoming professionals -- and I can't imagine partaking in any hobby I didn't enjoy. Sure there are parts of most hobbies which are not much fun -- the blisters a guitar player gets from practicing, the seemingly endless hours of sanding a cabinet for a woodworker, the sweaty, mosquito filled nights of a backyard stargazer -- but the overall experience makes up for the rest. And isn't it the hard parts which separate the truly committed from the posers?


----------



## John Oberon (Jul 7, 2015)

I enjoy having written.


----------



## JustRob (Jul 7, 2015)

Writing as a hobby and as a profession must be fundamentally different because the true hobbyist has no compunction to "improve" their work to give others more enjoyment of it. If one's hobby actually is giving other people enjoyment and that's what one enjoys then that's a different matter, but mine isn't primarily. The stories that I write are merely disposable by-products of an enjoyable pastime. Does the musician play for their own benefit or for others? Maybe a person starts one way but migrates to another objective through the encouragement of others, but fortunately I haven't encountered that with my writing so can continue to enjoy doing it.

With that in mind, *please don't read my novel! *(Even though it is brilliant)


----------



## musichal (Jul 7, 2015)

I love to write.  Have done so since I was young, when it began first as a love of reading.  I also love woodworking and playing the guitar, but as I can no longer do those, that leaves writing.  Yes, some bits can be tedious, and when that happens I either plow on through or think of ways to take the tedium out, figuring that section may also be tedious to read.  And I would be remiss not to mention that I especially love writing here at WF where I can also be read.  I know many of you want to get published and have dreams of making a living with your work, reaching a larger audience, and I wish you luck and great success.  I would likely feel the same were I younger and/or in better health, but as it is I'm having a great time here.


----------



## Sam (Jul 7, 2015)

Kevin said:


> It's called suffering for your art.



Next you'll be getting out the tweed jacket, the briar pipe, and calling yourself a tortured soul. 

Be sure to romanticise the suffering as much as possible, too. Can't have enough of that.


----------



## ppsage (Jul 7, 2015)

As an experience, I find writing complicated and often compelling. Reducing that to enjoyable or not sort of seems a trivialization. There is joy in it and tedium and frustration and exhilaration, sometimes in quick succession.


----------



## LeeC (Jul 7, 2015)

I write because I think I have something meaningful to say (oh silly me). The stories I come up with to convey my objectives are an enjoyable and welcome distraction to thoughts better not dwelled on. Unlike musichal (though an avid reader) I only got into writing when I could no longer do my marquetry and sculpture art. What I need now is something to plug into my head, as even my typing fingers are so slow. What I find aggravating about writing in plodding along getting it down, while my head is far beyond in living the envisioned story ;-) 

All this interaction today has worn me out, and it's raining again so I can't go out for vitamin D. Time for me to lay down and let you all get on with whatever you fancy. It's been fun and I wish you all the best 

Hope to see something enjoyable and interesting to read when I come back, so get crackin'.


----------



## Riis Marshall (Jul 7, 2015)

Hello Folks

Maybe it's a little bit like climbing a mountain: some of it can be pure, scary, exhausting hell, but when you stand on the summit and think to yourself, I did it! that's pure joy.

Even more satisfying, perhaps, is when you're back down at base camp and you look up at that towering, ugly S-O-B, smile and say, this time probably out loud: 'I did it! Take that, you big mutha.'*

All the best with your writing.

Warmest regards
Riis

*And maybe the answer to why somebody wants to climb a mountain and why somebody wants to write is the same.


----------



## InstituteMan (Jul 7, 2015)

I don't enjoy every minute of my writing, but I enjoy most of the hours.


----------



## bazz cargo (Jul 7, 2015)

The most fun I've had with my clothes on.


----------



## Kyle R (Jul 7, 2015)

Some might find this article helpful: http://lifehacker.com/how-to-harnass-your-brains-dopamine-supply-and-increas-1496989326 (The motivational effects of Dopamine, and how to harness it.) :encouragement:


----------



## TKent (Jul 7, 2015)

I don't enjoy it all the time. Fortunately, I don't do it for a living, so I'm not forced to write when it isn't enjoyable. I have the luxury of putting it away until I'm enjoying it again if I want to. I will say that my best writing so far (and I don't have that much accumulated yet) has come from those amazing periods where I'm completely inspired and you would have to drag me away from a computer to stop me. I don't think that enjoying writing is a 'requirement' to writing work that is enjoyable to read. There are people who are really good at it, and do it because they like the finished product, not because they enjoy the act itself. I've read so many author interviews I can't quote who has said this but I know I've seen various 'versions' of this. And I know that it is not a popular idea here sometimes but I've read about authors who write because they make money doing it, but don't necessarily like doing it.


----------



## shadowwalker (Jul 8, 2015)

I enjoy the challenges of writing. (And hobbyist or not, I always worked for improvement - that was one of the challenges.)


----------



## stevesh (Jul 8, 2015)

Depends, I think. I've always thought of it sort of like this:

Writing stopped being fun when I discovered the difference between good  writing and bad and, even more terrifying, the difference between it and  true art. And after that, the whip came down.

Truman Capote


----------



## John Galt (Jul 8, 2015)

I've always been more of a "oh look, a cool new hobby" then three weeks later I was the authority on the subject, then three weeks after that I didn't care at all.  Writing, though, now this is something I can't swallow in three weeks and discard it into the spittoon.  
Sure, there're those weeks when the project of the season feels awful and this is the worst thing ever written (not by me, but worst thing ever written in the history of the human civilization). But then that sentence, that one sentence or paragraph or chapter that sidled up to your laptop screen and hey presto, fuel for another week.
That's just my experience, but I think, in general, it sound be enjoyable at some point of the process - if you enjoy revisions, but have to pass the first draft, or enjoy brainstorming/worldbuilding. Of course, you're not going to enjoy 100% of anything, but it should be enjoyable for some portion of the work.


----------



## dale (Jul 8, 2015)

i find writing to be a living hell. but sometimes hell ain't a bad place to be.


----------



## AtleanWordsmith (Jul 8, 2015)

For me, personally, the actual act of writing can be both fun (those times when you know exactly what goes where and how things are to play out) and frustrating (those times when you don't know how to make interactions not-awkward or when you have to delete entire chunks of text because you've written yourself into a corner).  It all depends on the mood I'm in, whether I've just done something that inspires me (most of my ideas come to me while I'm working, driving, or laying in bed thinking about where I want the story to go next), how much alcohol I've had (with a negative correlation between my BAC and my spelling), and whether I actually enjoy writing what I'm writing, if that makes any sense.

Still, at the end of the day, it doesn't matter how much work it felt like, sitting there with your finished work is just... so great.  I mean, on a scale of one to great, it's just great.  So... I mean.  Necessary evil and all that.  Woohoo.


----------



## JustRob (Jul 8, 2015)

ppsage said:


> As an experience, I find writing complicated and often compelling. Reducing that to enjoyable or not sort of seems a trivialization. There is joy in it and tedium and frustration and exhilaration, sometimes in quick succession.



I agree sincerely. There was a sad episode in my story that I had to edit several times but each time that I read it through and gave it the thought that was needed I wept and could barely see the screen through the tears. One could hardly say that that was outright enjoyment but it was an experience that I would not have missed. A friend once told me that people do not understand the true meaning of hedonism. He said that it is not just enjoying the most enjoyable things in life but opening oneself to all the experiences that life offers. Perhaps that is why we write.

The joy for me is in the astonishment that I can do it at all. The fiction that I write is equally fiction to me, not the real product of planning and effort but something from deep inside that feeds off that aspect of my character. My writing is complicated because I have had to do complicated things in the past and somehow my brain can do that all by itself now, so I sit and type and wonder where all the convoluted stories come from. For me it is the enjoyment of letting my brain do everything that it has learned in the last seventy years to produce its own version of reality unrestricted by what it perceives around it. Normally our brains have to match their world views accurately to the real world, constantly making revisions, but writing fiction allows them to free wheel for a while experiencing that same escapism that a reader does but from another direction. If subsequently I need to revise what I write to please others then that is a different matter. Again, if others enjoy what I write then it astonishes me and I am pleasantly pleased but that isn't the enjoyment for me.


----------



## Kyle R (Jul 8, 2015)

Learning to ride a bike can be frustrating (even painful). Stumbles, falls, skinned knees. Wobbliness. Trepidation.

But then come the spurts of joy, like when you make it a whole ten feet for the first time. Elation when you make it down the driveway without falling over.

Eventually, riding a bike comes easily, and you're able to appreciate the wind in your hair and the hum of the tires beneath you. 

With enough time and experience (and a healthy dose of determination!), these kinds of things can turn from a challenge into a pleasure. :encouragement:

(Writing fiction sure feels harder than learning to ride a bike, though! I consider it more like learning a foreign language, in terms of difficulty. The learning curve can be quite steep, but the results can be quite rewarding.)


----------



## Mesafalcon (Jul 9, 2015)

I enjoy the *writting*. Yes.

What I do not enjoy - is editting, and making corrections, and rewritting something I know is worth it.


----------



## JustRob (Jul 9, 2015)

Kyle R said:


> Learning to ride a bike can be frustrating (even painful). Stumbles, falls, skinned knees. Wobbliness. Trepidation.



I could so easily make that comparison with writing myself. I was educated at an English boarding school at a time when they followed the old model with a hierarchical structure amongst the pupils. Through my academic achievements in the sixth form I had been awarded the status of school monitor, which illogically gave me administrative powers including being able to admonish and even punish any of the eight hundred scholars. It also entitled me to ride a bike within the school grounds, but I had never owned or ridden one.

My education in this skill was given by a number of enthusiastic younger scholars with the aid of a borrowed bike. Launched along one of the school paths I managed to stay on the device for some twenty yards before disappearing into a hedge, to the great entertainment of my juniors. Subsequently with more borrowed bikes I was able to carry out my administrative duties across the spacious school grounds for the rest of the year, but never got the hang of drop handlebars, so was always an entertaining spectacle when lent such a device. I even occasionally went on trips in the surrounding countryside with those same juniors who had first launched me into that experience so enthusiastically. Decades later my angel and I both bought bikes and took to riding around our Kent countryside.

That boarding school was a real community and all such experiences were accepted in good humour. Now coming to this good humoured writers' community as a complete novice is very similar for me. Just as at school I am a mature but inexperienced member without the specific skills required at the moment. There are times that others may value my comments and times when I sorely need theirs. There are younger members with great experience whom I respect in some respects but sometimes I can still write here with an air of authority despite my ignorance. 

Maybe one of the ways that writing is enjoyable is by entitling one to membership of a community such as this one. To a great extent writing is a personal journey which may well end inauspiciously in a hedge but having the encouragement, assistance and laughter of others along the way adds to that experience.


----------



## Loulou (Jul 9, 2015)

I love writing.  I genuinely don't understand why anyone would write if they didn't love it?  I mean, it's not something you have to do.  Yes, it can be hard.  It can be frustrating, challenging, and tiring.  And therefore if you don't love it, why would you even bother?  I love every aspect.  Thinking about it.  Getting that idea.  Starting.  Writing.  Going back to it each day.  Working and working and working at it.  Writing.  Thinking about it all the time.  More editing.  Completing a piece.  Editing again.  Notes from my editors.  Further edits.  Futher edits.  And then all over again with something new.  I agree that there's an element of suffering for your art, if by suffering you mean hard work.  But if there's no pleasure in it, then there's no point.  To me, it's magic.


----------



## Gamer_2k4 (Jul 9, 2015)

Loulou said:


> I love writing.  I genuinely don't understand why anyone would write if they didn't love it?  I mean, it's not something you have to do.



Ask any person about diet and exercise, and you'll probably hear that they don't like it.  Some might flat-out hate it.  And yet, we do it, not because we have to, but because we like the results.  We force ourselves through something we don't enjoy to get to a state we do enjoy.

For me, that's how writing feels.


----------



## Loulou (Jul 9, 2015)

That's a good analogy.  But an exercise routine takes thirty minutes a day, maybe three or four times a week.  Writing a novel can take six months of writing for say five or six hours a day, every day.  Just seems - to me - such a lot of time to spend doing something you don't enjoy, simply to have a novel at the end of it.  And say you achieve success?  And have to churn out a novel a year?  It's no way to live, surely, spending half your life doing something you hate just to have a product at the end of it, even if you like that product.  We're all different of course.  And if that works for you, who is anyone else to suggest otherwise.  Just saying that I couldn't sit and do something for hours and hours on end if I didn't at least enjoy it most of the time, especially when it's not something necessary, that I *have* to do.


----------



## Gamer_2k4 (Jul 9, 2015)

Loulou said:


> That's a good analogy.  But an exercise routine takes thirty minutes a day, maybe three or four times a week.  Writing a novel can take six months of writing for say five or six hours a day, every day.



Aren't you comparing apples to oranges here? Of course being a professional writer takes a substantial commitment, just like being a professional athlete requires hours and hours of training every day.  And for those professionals, both in athletic and artistic pursuits, there's probably enough passion that it doesn't feel like work at all.  However, I sincerely doubt the average WF member writes six hours a day, just like I doubt the average person trying to stay in shape works out all day long.

I'll agree that if you're making it a profession, writing had better be really enjoyable or really lucrative.  But if it's just something to do as a hobby, the picture is a little different.


----------



## Jon M (Jul 9, 2015)

I don't know that I enjoy writing. Most of the time, probably not. But I feel it is worthwhile, and enriches--imbues--life. What I truly love is my career, in healthcare. I have no interest whatsoever working as a professional writer. To me that seems like a special kind of hell.


----------



## Sam (Jul 9, 2015)

Some people like the notion of being a writer more than actually writing. 

"You're a writer? Can I read some of your stuff?" 

"No, sorry, I've had writer's block for the last five years. Haven't written a thing. That's being a writer for you." 

It's like a badge of honour for them to call themselves a writer even though they hardly ever write, hate the entire process, and would rather stick sharp objects in their eyes than sit down to put words on paper/a screen. 

If you hate something to the point where it makes you miserable, or makes you want to tear your hair out, is it really worth it? So you finish a novel, get someone to publish it, and then spend the next however many years of your life doing _ad nauseam _the same thing that makes you miserable. 

Why? It defies logic. 

Equally so if you're only doing it for a hobby. Hobbies are by definition supposed to be something you do for pleasure. Why would you choose a hobby that you hate?


----------



## Kyle R (Jul 9, 2015)

Gamer_2k4 said:


> Ask any person about diet and exercise, and you'll probably hear that they don't like it.  Some might flat-out hate it.  And yet, we do it, not because we have to, but because we like the results.  We force ourselves through something we don't enjoy to get to a state we do enjoy.
> 
> For me, that's how writing feels.



You're not alone. Flannery O'Conner complained that, "Writing is a terrible experience . . ."

James Joyce said: "Writing in English is the most ingenious torture ever devised . . ."

And some insight from Joyce Carol Oates:
Given that the act of writing provokes such misery, why do you do it? – here is the writer's perennial riddle. Every writer is asked this question, or its artful variants, and every writer comes up with some plausible answer . . .

Most writers find first drafts painfully difficult, like climbing a steep stairs, the end of which isn't in sight. Only just persevere! Eventually, you will get where you are gong, or so you hope. And when you get there, you will not ask why?—the relief you feel is but a brief breathing spell, before beginning again with another inspiration, another draft, another steep climb.
​

I get a lot of satisfaction from the writing process—from stringing words together and seeing a world that exists only in my head come to life on the page. To me, it's pretty awesome.

But there are times when my inspiration isn't there, or my motivation is elsewhere, or in some cases, where the stresses of life have poured down upon me and writing fiction seems like the last thing I should be doing.

Sometimes, if I'm trying to write in those cases, I find bribery works. I bribe myself with something else that I know I want, and promise to give it to myself as a reward if I just write one more scene. 

I believe that's called "operant conditioning," and, in my opinion, it's as valid a science as any. The goal is to eventually train oneself to associate the task with the pleasure that comes from the reward (and rewire the brain into eventually perceiving the task _as_ the reward).

See the *dopamine* article linked above. Whenever a writer says they enjoy writing, what they are actually saying is they enjoy the surges of dopamine that writing gives them. 

Habits, though, take time to build, and, in my opinion, the less frequently one writes, the more likely one will feel like they are toiling when they do (just like one who exercises rarely, compared to one who has been exercising regularly for years). :encouragement:


----------



## Plasticweld (Jul 9, 2015)

_*Equally so if you're only doing it for a hobby. Hobbies are by definition supposed to be something you do for pleasure. Why would you choose a hobby that you hate? 


*_Sam makes a great point here.  In the truest sense I am a professional writer, I have made my living by selling myself and what I do through the written word, it is art to be able to convey the message that I am a honorable person to do business with who will give you a good value for your dollar and that you will walk away a satisfied customer.  I imagine that the ability to convince an un-known person of your wishes and to get them to comply so that you can make a living may just be the most difficult task when putting a pen in your hand just as the ability to either teach or share an experience so that someone maybe able to identify with it is the ultimate goal of any writer, yet I would not identify myself a writer.


The real reason I write is to make more space in my head for the next story; there is something magical about hitting the post button on any story and then being able to focus on the next story or idea. 

I think there is a certain measure of truth to Kyle's link and the effects writing has on the brain and dopamine


----------



## Gamer_2k4 (Jul 9, 2015)

Sam said:


> Some people like the notion of being a writer more than actually writing.









I assure you, that isn't my problem.


----------



## JustRob (Jul 9, 2015)

Kyle R said:


> You're not alone. Flannery O'Conner complained that, "Writing is a terrible experience . . ."



I recollect reading that Flannery O'Conner's publisher had to pretty well tear her manuscripts out of her bleeding hands because she was forever trying to perfect them and never considered them quite ready for publication. Writing in that way may well be a terrible experience but that was her choice. Her subjects had an air of terribleness about them as well. She may well have been a remarkable writer but hardly representative I suspect.


----------



## cinderblock (Jul 10, 2015)

To all those saying you need to enjoy writing, please get out of here with the snobbery.

Everybody has their own process, and everybody is motivated by different incentives.

We all practice illogical activities. Certain activities that hurt us, damage us, make us miserable. But we do it for whatever reason, whether it's dating, marrying, child-rearing, competing in sports, etc. Do you know how many athletes and entertainers ask themselves, "Why am I doing this?" before it's time to step up and perform? Do you know how many athletes abhor training? 

There are plenty of successful authors who've gone on record to talk about how painful writing is for them. Orwell, Vonnegut, etc. Let's not get on any high horse and act like just because one writes a paragraph once in a blue moon as a hobby, it constitutes that one enjoys writing. 

At the end of the day, a writer craves an audience. Attention. That's the glory. Like an athlete who wins a sporting event. Like you do anything in life. Some people are more optimistic about their process. Some despise it. People are different. Get over it.


----------



## Loulou (Jul 10, 2015)

Snobbery, cinderblock?  Hardly.  Though I enjoy writing, I said in my post that we are all different, that each writer should do what works for them, and no one should tell them otherwise.  I agree, there's no right or wrong.  I was expressing that I (personally, in my opinion) couldn't understand why anyone would do it if they didn't love it.  And I agree that writing is painful.  Agony at times.  And yes, for some it is about glory.

Those athetes you speak of - trust me, when they ask themselves why they do it, it'll very likely be love of the sport.  That even though it's agony, miserable, painful, time consuming, something drives them.  Very likely their passion for the sport.  I agree winning, very likely also.  But why did they choose that particular sport?

Nothing to get over here, this is a debate, cinderblock.  A discussion.  No right or wrong.

Seems such a shame to write though if you dislike everything but the result, because the result is so small a part of the whole procedure.  Life's too short.  Find joy in something else.


----------



## JustRob (Jul 10, 2015)

It seems that the consistent theme here is that whether an activity may be enjoyable is dependent on the reason for doing it. A hobby should be enjoyable while an occupation to earn a crust should involve more effort. Writing is an activity like some others such as music and sport where many people are in the wide grey region between those two clear extremes and therefore this discussion has legs.

I have always had a fascination with electronics but when it came to choosing a career I didn't choose that because I wanted it as a hobby, something that I would always enjoy, and that is how my life worked out. Instead I went into finance and when the need arose in that business I took to software development. Now retired I have the skills to manage my own finances and when the need arises I can make computers do whatever I want, but these aren't hobbies pursued for enjoyment as such. Instead I have chosen a very challenging electronics project as my main hobby. The reason for doing something determines which is the master and which the servant, the person or the task, and that tends to determine the enjoyment. In my novel (It had to come eventually.) a man submits to dominance by a woman and afterwards she asks him why he did it. The activity itself doesn't determine our attitude to it and the nature of the experience; only the reason matters. 

I enjoy my writing as a hobby and from my point of view I am a novice at it but that stance overlooks the fact that writing is an integral component of life and I have experienced many years of that. Software development makes all the same demands as prose writing in a way, so maybe I have suffered the same torments as a novice writer but in a different context. Apart from the discipline involved in writing the software itself there was the task of writing prose specifications, user documentation, feasibility studies and such. For a while my occupation was actually advising others on how to use language precisely to convey meaning within the context of the company business. No wonder that the only award that I have here at WF for writing relates to a published article on a technical subject, albeit one threaded with humour in my usual style. I now regard my writing hobby as a freebie emanating from skills acquired through sometimes arduous experiences elsewhere in life. This is bound to be a different viewpoint from that of the inexperienced person who decides to start writing in isolation for its own sake.

Apart from my fiction writing I am also working on a factual history project, but history by its nature sits somewhere between fact and fiction because the historian is often forced to span the gaps in past recorded knowledge with his own conjecture. My subject has many large gaps, the reason why I chose it, and therefore I have to decide how to write up my findings. Should I stick to recording known facts and leave the conjecture to the reader, indulge in my own wild ideas or present a parallel thesis setting conjecture alongside known facts? Writing the document will certainly not be enjoyable for me because I must do justice to the history-writers' discipline and so the research lies in a disorganised heap until I steel myself to the task. If I had the skill to write a Victorian period novel I would present it in that style, but that is definitely beyond me as well. The hobby and the enjoyment there was in the research itself, in discovering things that nobody else ever has, but the writing will be an ordeal. Even so I feel that it is only right to share the experience with others. In the world of history especially apparent realities can arise solely from the sharing of ideas regardless of the original truths. Once again though it is the reason for writing that determines the level of enjoyment.


----------



## Sam (Jul 10, 2015)

cinderblock said:


> To all those saying you need to enjoy writing, please get out of here with the snobbery.
> 
> Everybody has their own process, and everybody is motivated by different incentives.
> 
> ...



I never said writers don't have their own processes. 

What I said was that some people like the idea of being a writer more than writing. They like calling themselves a writer, a tortured soul, a misunderstood genius suffering for his/her art. They romanticise the notion because they read about people like Orwell and Vonnegut struggling and hating the process, then project that onto themselves and believe they're the same. 

I've met them. In writers' conferences, coffee shops, creative-writing groups. They don't want to write; they just want to call themselves a writer. I'm not saying all people who struggle with writing are like this, and neither am I saying that people who love writing don't hit difficult patches, but if you hate doing something to the point where it causes you stress and/or ill health, it's not worth it. 

As Louise said: life is too short.


----------



## AtleanWordsmith (Jul 10, 2015)

Diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks.

At the end of the day, if I don't enjoy it, I tend not to do it--unless there's a payoff.  I'll happily drive to work each day if it means that I keep bringing home a paycheck.  I get a pretty good release from my writing, it's nice to see a world take form and shape and know that you're the driving force behind it.  It's nice to think that people may enjoy reading it, as well.

That said, I don't think I'd enjoy it as much if it became an obligation, and that's largely why I've avoided trying to make a living with it.  In the end, to each his own.  Or her own.  Or its own.  Or... well.  Everyone has a different motivation, and that's great.


----------



## J Anfinson (Jul 10, 2015)

I don't enjoy writing every day, but when I do, it's bliss. At the same time there can be days when it's torture yet I think I've written some good stuff.


----------



## shadowwalker (Jul 10, 2015)

Yeah, I don't see snobbery here (except perhaps "Let's not get on any high horse and act like just because one writes a paragraph once in a blue moon as a hobby, it constitutes that one enjoys writing.", although I confess I'm not sure what that's actually saying or even refers to). If one is writing as a profession, it's like any job - some are doing something they love (frustrations and all) and some are doing it solely because it brings in a paycheck and actually would do something else if they could, and a myriad are doing it for equally innumerable reasons and go through a tennis game of love/hate. If one is doing it for a hobby, one could assume they enjoy it, with the caveat that many hobbies require hours of backbreaking labor or incredible frustrations before the final product (the reason for that particular hobby) is achieved. I know several people who refurbish antique cars - the blue smoke coming from their garages is not car exhaust, but they love the feeling of accomplishment every time another step is completed.


----------



## escorial (Jul 10, 2015)

can't say I do to be honest..i often write when I'm down..can't think what I've wrote on the up.....


----------



## Kevin (Jul 10, 2015)

Now that someone's given me the ixnay on my outfit I'm not sure what to wear. I have some turtlenecks but I get tired of black. I could go back to my belted knitted but it's a little warm for that... maybe cardigans, and they do come in so many colors... shoes! I've got these velvety slip-ons, green, red, and burgundy...gold lame...but that clashes with the belted...hmm... penny loafers, no, too.... What does anyone think of bongos? a violin (though I can't actually play...)? Dammit, man, now I'm suffering...


----------



## TJ1985 (Jul 10, 2015)

I understand a simple fact in my own life: the odds of my becoming a person who makes $100 total in writing is almost the exact same as the odds I'll find myself locked in a school bus full of collegiate cheerleaders who have been living under forced abstinence for a year, and I'm the first male they have seen in eleven months. Comparatively, I'm more likely to be hit by lightning on my birthday in a leap year whilst fighting a great white shark using a cooked piece of rotini.

Writing is something I enjoy. If I didn't enjoy it, I'd find a different hobby. The opportunities to make money doing this are so minimal that I wouldn't put up with it just for the hope of future income. Buy a dirty used car, clean it up, shine it up, add $250 to the price you paid, and sell it for that number. Put that money towards another filthy used car and repeat. 

Plus, I don't write because I want to, I write because it's one place where I have total control. If I want a character to beat a bad guy to death with a piece of rotini... Pasta la Vista, baby.


----------



## Cato (Jul 11, 2015)

I could have written this post, for me writing is a struggle - a battle between how I envision things in my mind and how I portray them in reality on paper. A quote by D Jensen, "Writing is really very easy. Tap a vein and bleed into the page. Everything else is just technical."


----------



## PiP (Jul 12, 2015)

Cato said:


> A quote by D Jensen, "Writing is really very easy. Tap a vein and bleed into the page. Everything else is just technical."



I wonder if this could also  be a cure for 'writer's block'?



> I could have written this post, for me writing is a struggle - a battle between how I envision things in my mind and how I portray them in reality on paper



Exactly!


----------



## Phil Istine (Jul 12, 2015)

For me, it's like most things.  There are aspects that I enjoy and some less so.  
For example:  My day job is washing windows.  The act of cleaning glass can be mundane and boring.  However, I have the tools that make it safer and easier and they ensure that I can work fast enough to earn well.  The biggest bonus though is that I'm self-employed which gives me a level of freedom about how hard (or otherwise) I work.  It also means that I don't have to tolerate difficult customers.  So the pros are the relative freedom of when, where and how to work - and who to work for.  The cons are the boredom of the actual job and dealing with occasional difficult customers (until I drop them from the work schedule).

Now, with writing, there are also aspects that I like more than others.  The largest piece that I'm currently working on has a lot of difficult emotional content as it's mainly autobiographical.  Putting many of the events down on paper (or word processor) can be debilitating and I sometimes dislike it.  What I love though is going through it and tidying up my first offering; chopping a sentence here, adding a better phrase there, being a bit stumped for a better word then coaxing one from a thesaurus and slotting it neatly into place, helping the prose flow over the stones.
I've noticed some people say that they are not so keen on editing but, for me, it's currently the part that I love.  Maybe on a less emotional work I will find things to be different.  I am very early on this journey so I imagine that my perceptions will change.


----------



## Crowley K. Jarvis (Jul 12, 2015)

If you're not enjoying what you're writing, then find something else to write about.

The act of creation is always the funnest part. It always should be.

Editing, however... it's ok to hate editing. ;P


----------

