DISCUSSION: Writing for Fun versus Writing for Serious

[diamondpearl876]

Forgive me for the awful thread title.

I came across this poem by Charles Bukowski, a rather renowned German/American poet, and got to wondering about what he said. He claims you shouldn't write unless you couldn't live without writing; you shouldn't write solely for fame and glory; you shouldn't write if the words don't come naturally to you; you shouldn't write if you have to do rewrites; and so on. Basically, it's a poem questioning habits and motivations of pretty much every author on the planet.

Most of us write fanfic here. I've seen fanfic be used as a writing exercise for people who want to be real authors someday; I've seen fanfic be used as a fun hobby only; and I've seen fanfic be used as a fun hobby but also something people try hard at because if you're gonna do it you might as well try to do it "right".

I personally fall into that last category. I'm not all that fussed or interested in getting published one day. Though it'd be exciting if it happened, I'm not into original fiction enough to really get far and feel accomplished for it, I don't think. That being said, I do find my best writing is the writing that "come bursting out of you" like described in the poem.

So, do you write for fun? Do you write with a long-term goal in mind? Some mix of the two?

 

[Iggy]

There is nothing wrong with writing as a hobby and keep it as that. I think Charles may have meant how writing for money with a style that is not your own (some writers use the term voice, see Tom Romano's Crafting Authentic Voice for an excellent guide on this matter) is detrimental to yourself and the craft as a whole.

I think lots of published authors would share Charles's opinion. Stephen King outlined a similar belief in his book On Writing, a memoir of the craft, David Eddings in The Rivan Codex shared the notion and emphasized the necessity of a solid understanding of writing, mostly through education. He speaks of writing epic fantasy but I'm sure it can be applied to pretty much any other genre. I wholeheartedly recommend these two books to anyeone taking writing at least half serious. They just may shake you wide awake. While you may disagree with them, just remember one thing: they're high selling authors for a very good reason. They understand the craft. Nevertheless, if you like writing then all I can say is: keep doing it!

I write because I love doing it and I got plenty of concepts to work with. I also love to read about the visions of the great writer minds of this planet on the subject of writing and I soak up all advice they have. I do not write in my native tongue so there's a challenge for me. Sure, it is hard but I always keep trying. Sometimes it feels as if every waking moment I think about my writing; the right words, the right development, the right scenes and so on.

 

[UselessBytes]

I've always dreamed of punishing my own original work of fiction, but I've no clue if it'll happen. For now I mostly write for fun, only when stories or ideas come to me(You should see my Google Drive sometime, it's full of scribbled down plot ideas and half written short stories that I'll never finish or get around to). However, I've always got that little thought in the back of my head, the one that says, "Hey, wouldn't it make your freakin' life if you could make a living out of this, out of doing what you love?"

I think one day I'll most definitely try and publish something that i can call entirely my own, but for now, as a senior in high school prepping for college, writing and fan fiction is a hobby, and it'll probably stay that way for a good while. And who knows, maybe I'll drop some of my original stuff here someday.

And on the off chance I do happen to make it as a big time author, you all get signed copies on me.

 

[lucarioknight56]

I'm writing fanfiction for fun, mostly. I want to get published someday, and certainly can't do that writing what I am right now. But I love the world I created, and will regularly return to it even if I do get published. Anyway, for me, this is all practice for when I do work on my own original story; the idea for it is there, but I don't want to go back to it yet until I'm finished with my PMD saga. I find that it is hard to write another character right, but making your own is so much easier--even if it can still be hard to nail.

Until the day I try writing seriously, I'll content myself with PMD. Writing 1000 words a day certainly keeps me in good shape!

 

[Juliko]

I do write fan fiction for fun, and have done so since 2005, though I definitely wish to become a published writer someday. I've learned a lot through writing fan fics and original work, and from a variety of different places.

 

[Misfit Angel]

I'll be very disappointed in myself if I die an unpublished author, especially with how much time I've sunk into improving it as a craft. It's pretty much the only thing I'm even halfway decent at, so I'm basically all in at this point.

That said, I still do it for fun.

 

[CrystaI]

Well to be fair, fan-fiction by its own nature can no way be an economic activity, due to the fair-use policy of canon work, we can't publish fanfic like any original novel for money purpose, or else we have the chance to be sued by the canon developer. Therefore, fan-fiction can only be a hobby work.

However, the level of devotion into one's hobby work differs from one another. There exist people that are just doing their hobby activity casually as a leisure to kill time, yet there also exist people that threat their hobby as an extracurricular activity hence felt obligated to master it. For me personally, I'm more of the latter.

Not limited to writing fanfic, basically I'm the kind of person that tends to master everything I lied my hands on. So despite I don't receive any financial benefit from writing fanfic, I still devote my time to study the academic theories about literature writing and narratology, grammar and language rules, techniques and tropes, and many other pop-culture knowledge. Although I don't receive financial benefit, but the writing skills I acquired through my fanfic hobby is transferable to my freelance work, so it is not completely useless.

Besides, I developed an affinity for my fictional universe and fictional characters during the writing process, where I feel the responsibility to finish the story no matter what. So basically to sum it up, L.O.V.E. towards my story is the ultimate drive to continue this fanfic writing activity.

 

[canisaries]

i don't have any realistic expectations of ever being published, given the simple fact that i have no idea how to write flowing fiction in my native language and that my english will always be one step behind the rest. this is fine, though - i've never explicitly wanted to be a professional writer, at most i've had speculative daydreams about it for fun.

i write to express and because it's fun. i have the same reasons for drawing. i have blurry ideas in my head that i want to see brought into the physical world, preserved in a clearer state that perhaps someone else may be inspired by one day.

telling someone not to write if they're not planning on being serious is like telling someone to stop humming a tune if they're not going to become opera singers. or to stop running if they're not going to become the next usain bolt. just doesn't make sense.

 

[diamondpearl876]

Well to be fair, fan-fiction by its own nature can no way be an economic activity, due to the fair-use policy of canon work, we can't publish fanfic like any original novel for money purpose, or else we have the chance to be sued by the canon developer. Therefore, fan-fiction can only be a hobby work.

Pokemon's version of 50 Shades of Grey when?

There are quite a few fics on the site that can easily pass for original fiction, in all seriousness, or be converted to look like original fiction fairly smoothly.

 

[Drakon]

The main thing that I see is that if you "write for serious", you turn what is essentially a hobby into a job.

And like any job, "writing for serious" you will have days where you just don't feel like doing it. But unlike hobby writing, you can't just put it away and wait for your spark to come back.

 

[diamondpearl876]

The main thing that I see is that if you "write for serious", you turn what is essentially a hobby into a job.

And like any job, "writing for serious" you will have days where you just don't feel like doing it. But unlike hobby writing, you can't just put it away and wait for your spark to come back.

I don't think this is necessarily true, depending on the definition of "serious." Serious to me still means a hobbyist writer can put everything they've got into their writing but not aim to make a living off of it. That said, that means they can also prioritize things other than writing in life and drop it off to the wayside if needed. Doesn't make them any less passionate about the craft.

 

[TRNatalie]

I mostly write for fun but I have a few rough drafts of original stories that I hope to get published when I grow up.