Writing for Fun

Alright, so I listened to the latest Writing Excuses -check this sweet podcast out here:

http://www.writingexcuses.com/

It was an interesting topic: Writing for fun.

Often times, as writers, we can get caught up in:
"I need to finish this project simply because it's a deadline to meet."
"I need to write this to make money."
"I can't work on that idea because it is silly and won't make me money."

Sure, there are writers that write just for fun, and there are others who write with the intent to make money off of it, admittedly I am the latter. There is nothing wrong with that. If you are writing to make money, good for you, hopefully it is successful! If you are writing just for fun, good for you! Do what you enjoy! My message is mainly for the crowd who is writing for money.

Don't forget to have fun with it.

My bet is the first time you started writing, was because you found the task fun. If you didn't get any joy out of it, why would you do it initially? You don't want to take the craft that you've worked so hard to polish up, and suck the fun out of it. The day you write begrudgingly, simply because you need to, is the day it becomes a job just like any other job. So, take the time to work on that silly idea, write out a few scenes of that thing you don't think would sell. Because in the end, it's still practice.

Every time you write you polish things up even more for the day you are working on that big seller idea. Brandon Sanderson himself admitted he has plenty of things that he never intends to publish, Stephen King probably has tons of ideas as well that will never be published -not because they can't (that guy can publish anything), but because he wrote them to be silly, to have "fun". I guess what I'm saying is that having fun, doesn't equate to not being productive. At the very least, you are honing more of the writing craft.

Who knows what else you'll discover along the way.

Follow me on twitter! @MattTaylor1776 I will follow you back, I promise. Like and share this post! Comment! Share your thoughts, I'd love to hear from you!

-Matt