Writing for Pleasure

The “philosophy” behind writing for pleasure as opposed to writing for “moneymaking” should not be too hard to understand. I have been writing for money for the larger part of my life, and that is something that has supported me quite well. However, it has not always been a pleasure, as I have had to write what others wanted me to write…and I often had to follow strict rules that applied to the type of writing I had to do to be paid.

When you write for pleasure then all thoughts of profit or moneymaking is secondary to the pure joy of writing – it is writing you do for your own pleasure.

Personally, I write everything I enjoy writing at the spur of the moment – be it poetry or pornography. The latter I prefer to describe as “erotic” writing though there are those who do not agree with that timid description…but I don’t care, I don’t write for them…I write to please myself and if I prefer to call it erotic writing then that is what it is.

If others read it and enjoy it so much the better, but I am not searching for others approval in the writing I do for pleasure. Most of the material I write I do not even make available for others to read. It is stored on my hard drive or on an USB memory, and sometimes as printouts as well. Perhaps future generations will enjoy what one of their ancestors has written, and perhaps not…but that will be their choice and I could not care less.

To write what you enjoy goes against every advice I ever read about writing – but then those advices were meant to help people “get into print” never mind how hard that can be. Since I often found it too hard to try and write to please publishers, I simply stopped and started to write to please myself – that, I found, was a lot easier.

Besides, when you write with the hope of getting a publisher interested you must follow their “guide lines” and there can be legal requirements that must be followed – not so when you write for your own pleasure. Then you can throw out all those – often silly – rules and write about everything in any way or form you like…and can start to feel the true pleasure of writing.

There is no need to try to write a bestseller, or even a book. You can write anything you like – and many times I found out that what I had written for pleasure actually turned out to be pretty useful, and I could often turn these stories into articles and other material that I could write to earn money…but that was never the intention when I first started to write the material.

The list below show some of the areas where I often have found great pleasure in writing:

• Journal writing If you don’t already do it, start now.
• Letter writing You don’t even have to send them.
• Travel journals Will make each trip you take something you will remember.
• Special event To write about them will help you remember them.
• Anecdotes These are short stories about fun things that have happened in your life.
• Family history Future generations, further down the family tree, will thank you.
• Family recipes For this you will find that younger members of your family, as well as future generations, will thank you.
• Letters to the Editor Vent your anger about event in your community but remember – you don’t have to send them in.

You can also find a great pleasure in writing some instructions, information or other material for use in your own family/home:

• Home emergency plan Should contain information that can help your family.
• Home maintenance manual You often get more and better information when you buy a phone than when you buy a home. Write better information yourself.
• Instructions for operation and maintenance for equipment you own. You can often write better instructions yourself than those coming from the manufacturer.
• Insurance information Here you should take photos and write descriptions of your material belongings. Information that is good to have when dealing with the insurance company.

There are many items to write about, and when you do it for your own pleasure then it will not be a tedious chore.

A wise man once said, “When you learn to love what you do then you don’t have to work another day in your life”.

Something to think about – and that is why I have become hooked on writing for pleasure.