When was the last time you had fun writing?
I mean really had fun. So much fun that you would literally spend all day writing if you could.
I love it when that happens. The words come so easily when I’m having fun. I can watch the story play in my head like a movie. I’m not distracted by what I want to happen ten chapters from now. I’m not worrying about if my writing is as good as I want it to be.
I’m just having fun, writing my story.
These are the days when I spend hour after hour typing away without the thought of taking a break ever crossing my mind. These are the days on which I’m my most productive, putting down 4,000 or 5,000 words in one sitting.
I love these days—but I haven’t had a day like this in a long time…
and my guess is, neither have you.
let’s fix that.
Photo courtesy of: flicker
Wouldn’t it be nice if every day could be like this?
It sure would! I’m not sure that it’s possible though…
The only way that I can see someone pulling off a string of 5,000 word days in a row is if writing was the most fun thing in the world to them. The problem with that, of course, is that writing is not fun. Not inherently fun, anyway.
In fact, the actual act of writing is boring, monotonous, stressful, mentally exhausting, difficult to do for long periods of time, and very often a thankless activity.
None of those things are fun. Not even remotely.
But the reason that writers like us are special, is because we’ve all found our own ways to make writing fun enough (or at least found motivation strong enough) to willingly force ourselves to write much more often than most sane people would.
However, even writers, as awesome as we are, can lose motivation, or forget how to make writing fun.
When this happens we suddenly stop being writers—mostly because, when we forget how to make writing fun, we stop writing.
That’s why, every once and a while, it’s good to do something to remind ourselves how to have fun.
That being said…
Here are seven ways that you can use to have fun with your writing!
1. Write without setting goals.
One of the reasons writing stops being fun is because we have a tendency to set specific goals for ourselves.
Don’t get me wrong, goals are a very good thing! But after a while of writing with your focus set on achieving a certain goal, your writing becomes solely about reaching that goal.
So instead of writing to reach a goal, do away with the goals and try writing without them. Let your focus be where it should be: having fun and telling a story.
2. Try something new.
Write in a different genre for a while. Write from the point of view of a different character. Invent a new type of magic and put it in your story. Make two characters fall in love with each other (or hate each other. Whichever sounds more fun to play with).
If the way that you’re telling your story is boring you, try telling it differently.
Of course you don’t have to keep the changes; the point of trying something new is to have fun without worrying about how it’s going to affect the story in the long run.
Although, most of the time when I try something new with a story, I end up liking it better than the original… Must have something to do with how much fun I’m having. *shrugs*
3. Break your own rules.
Do you think good should always win? Write a story about how evil breaks the pattern.
Do you never write in first person? Try it out.
Are you adamantly apposed to writing about magic? Put it in your story.
Never talk about your writing? Invite a friend out for coffee and tell them about your story. (actually, you should do that anyway. It’s extremely helpful in the long run)
You need to do something to break up the monotony of writing. What better way is there to stir things up than breaking a few rules.. And what makes it even better, is that by breaking your own rules, you’re forcing yourself to grow and stretch as a writer—and by breaking your own rules you’re exposing yourself to new elements to your writing that you may not have known existed before.
4. Make up a new story.
Pretty simple. Sometimes all you need to do to re-learn how to have fun is to drop the thing that isn’t fun to you anymore (for now) and pick up something new.
5. Throw in a twist.
Make it unexpected.
Make it exciting.
Force your characters to completely rearrange their carefully laid plans.
Watch how they react to this new development.
Just like with trying something new, you don’t have to keep the changes (of course). The point is to see your story from a different angle and ask “what if.”
6. Write complete nonsense.
Take a break from your serious work and freewrite a story from beginning to end.
7. Turn it into a poem.
This one might be a little more difficult than the others, but it is fun.
Take a really short story, or an excerpt from a story that you’ve already written and break it up into a poem.
This allows you to play with words and it’s all around good writing practice.
So there you have it!
Seven ways to make writing fun again.
But are these the only ways to have fun writing? No! Of course not.
Like I said, we’ve all found our own ways to make writing fun (why else would we want to put ourselves through all of this). If you’re feeling stuck, and playing with the idea of giving up, there’s a good chance that you’re just not having fun any more. Don’t give up!
All you have to do, is re-discover how to make writing fun again.