Fun

Fun /fən/

Definitions:

1. Enjoyment, amusement, or lighthearted pleasure.

2. Amusing, entertaining, or enjoyable.

Having fun is important.

And I think it’s something we often forget in writing.

For you new writers out there, or just writers who do something different as a career, writing isn’t a job. You don’t do it for a living at the moment. It’s something you do for your own enjoyment. Then for writers who actually do it for a living, it is your source of income.

But I feel like a lot of times, regardless of whether we write for a job or just for our own enjoyment, we all forget that writing is supposed to be fun.

“Find a job you enjoy doing, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” - Mark Twain

For writers, writing is something we enjoy. Like Richard Price says, we write because we can’t imagine not writing.

But sometimes, writing can become more of a chore than a hobby. Sometimes it loses the “fun” aspect of it.

Sure, writing can be a pain in the rear sometimes, and yeah, it can be stressful. Believe me, there are a lot of times when I’d like to do anything but write. Even though writing can be difficult, and it can be annoying, endless, and boring, it’s supposed to be fun. At least some part of it is.

So what are ways to make it fun if it’s not?

Write what you love.

"Write about what really interests you, whether it is real things or imaginary things, and nothing else." - C.S. Lewis

What fuels writing?

Passion.

A great way to both make writing fun and write well is to write something you love.

Write what you’re passionate about.

If you really love writing about make-believe worlds filled with mythical creatures and kingdoms, write that. If you enjoy writing tension-filled action novels that have readers biting their nails in anticipation, write those. If you want to write sci-fi, don’t write crime fiction. If you want to write romance, don’t write horror.

Writing what you love is the simplest way to make writing fun.

I think you all will agree with me that we like to read what we write. Maybe we read it and cringe or want to burn the pages until they resemble a pile of dust, but we like to read it regardless. So why would we write something we really don’t like?

I have many books going, as lots of writers do, but I recently started a new book and I am almost done with it even though I started it a little over a month ago. Why? Because it was something I wanted to write. It was something I loved. The storyline is one of my favorites and I love the genre.

When we choose to write something that we love, we are choosing to write something that we are going to want to finish. And if you want to finish your book, it’ll be more fun to write it, right?

Write at your own pace.

Don’t feel forced to finish a book in a year.

Forced writing is one of the ways writing can become a chore.

If you have a certain date when your book has to be done, it can become less fun to write because it becomes stressful.

Those who write for a job do have deadlines when they have to get their books written, but when you are just starting out as a writer you don’t have that.

So enjoy it.

Write at your own pace.

Don’t rush through your work in a way that makes it less fun.

Start something new that's more enjoyable.

As I mentioned when I talked about writer's block, sometimes we get bored with what we're writing. Sometimes we work on something for so long that it begins to get old. We begin to lose our inspiration.

And like I've said before, you can start something new.

You could start a new book, but if you do this every time you lose inspiration, you'll have a pile of unfinished work and find that it's really hard to finish one book.

Try this instead.

Write a scene or a chapter you've always wanted to write.

Think of all the scenes in the world that you've always thought, "Oh ya. I'd love to write that."

Then write one.

This is almost foolproof, because all you have to do is write whatever you want. It doesn't need to go along with a storyline and it doesn't need a plot.

Is there a certain action scene that you've always wanted to put into words?

How about an interaction between two people?

The simplest way to make writing fun is to write something with no pressure.

When you sit down and, just for fun, write a scene you've always wanted to write, there's no pressure. No stress about following a story or writing characters a certain way. No push to include foreshadowing or details needed in a book.

This usually helps inspiration to start flowing or simply helps writer's block to go away. And when you do this, you may even be inspired to write a book including whatever scene you write.

Write what you want to read.

Just as this helps choose genres, it also helps you enjoy writing them.

When you're writing something you want to read, it makes the journey more exciting. You get more devoted to the plot and the characters.

Really, I'm not sure how you'd write a book that's something you wouldn't want to read. How would you know how to write it? How would you enjoy it? How would you suffer through editing it and rereading the whole thing over and over?

Just like when choosing what genre to write, writing what you want to read makes it more fun.

My friends, writing is not a sunny journey. It's not hearts and flowers and filled with happiness.

There are many times when writing is not going to be fun.

It's going to happen.

More times than once.

But a good writer writes through that. They write even when it's not fun.

That is the advice I leave with you all.

Write even when it's not fun.

Because no good book is a single blank page. We have to have words. We have to have a story. And it's not going to write itself.

I hope you all learned something or just enjoyed this blog post. If you have any questions, feel free to send me a message in the contact bar below.

Happy writing!

-Jocelyn