Hi Everyone,
I'm interested what you think, as I know there is a real mixture of aspriring writers on this site.
Do you think writing can be fun? Should it be fun?
The reason I ask is that I've just had a very fraught conversation/row with a writer friend of mine. She writes for a living and has been very successful (according to my standards). My plan was to work on my novel over the summer (I'm a student) and see how far I got - no pressure, no deadlines, just some good old fashioned storytelling for the heck of it.
My friend feels strongly that writing is work, and what's more, work you kind of have to suffer to achieve. She talked about how writing is the loneliest job in the world, how you have to sacrifice friends, leisure time, happiness... and that if you write for any other reason, other than because you are compelled to do so, its an utter waste of time.
Another friend of mine says she's being depressive, that writing is one of the joys of life and that getting paid for it (which he has been) is like being paid to play. He thinks everyone should write because its escapism, gets you out of yourself and is a creative outlet. However, his creative writing success has been sparodic and he currently works in the book-trade (not as a writer).
This summer, as an experiment, I'm trying to put absolutely no pressure on myself and do it for fun, and see if that works better than my usual tendency to drive myself into the ground, crack up, and tell everyone I can't write for toffee, that its all a total waste of time and take to my bed.
So can fun be part of writing? Or is the starving artist in a garret closer to the reality?
P.S. I feel I might have a slight advantage as I am actually quite mad - thus cutting out several important steps in developing my persona as a famous writer
