Writing for Pleasure

When you write for pleasure you can just as well forget about all the “writing rules” you have heard of and might have had imprinted in your brain while going to school.

I have found that such rules often make it difficult for people to write. They don’t “know” where to start with their writing and claim that they “don’t know” how to write. Most of them have no problems talking though, and that is why I tell people to write the way they talk.

For some people this is easier said than done, and some individuals have to be shown how to do it. I know it sounds strange that people have problems putting the word they use when talking into writing – yet for some it is true.

Those who do have this problem all seem to suffer from the misconception that there is a special “writing style” that written material must follow. They fail to realise that “style” is what they have to develop on their own – making it their own personal writing style.

I remember a friend of mine, who was (and still is) a very gifted storyteller. He could bring the most mundane happening to life and he completely mesmerized people when telling his stories. They were often amusing, but many were also very touching and he could bring people to tears when telling his stories…both by laughing and from the compassion his stories could make you feel.

Everyone, including me, tried to convince him to start writing down his stories, but he always found some excuse not to do it. It was no secret that he really wanted to write down his stories, but he seemed to have a very hard time doing it.

I got the explanation when he once showed me the result of his writing. It was a story I had heard him tell several times, but the written story bore no resemblance to the story I had heard him tell us. It was, in short, horrible.

I talked to him and tried to convince him to write the way he talked…but he honestly thought that he did just that. I felt frustrated not being able to convince him about the difference between him telling the story and the way he wrote it.

Then I had a brilliant (or so I though) idea of secretly recording him while he was telling a story – and I did. Then it was a simple matter for me to write down his story almost verbatim the way he had spoken the words. Some editing was done, but not much.

Then I took it upon myself to send the story to a magazine in his hometown, and it was published right away and he received a decent payment for it.

He couldn’t believe what had happened at first, but when I let him listen to himself telling the story while reading my transcript he got convinced…he sure didn’t write the way he talked, but he could see that it was exactly what I had done for him. The material I had written was almost identical to what he had spoken – yet what I had written was very different from the story he had penned down on his own.

It took a little while longer, but his writing improved rapidly and he soon was as good writing stories as he was telling them.

This is a success story that may not apply to everyone, but everyone could start writing the way they talk, simply to “get going” with their writing.

If your stories are good but need some polishing, then there are always ghostwriters willing and able to help. To use a ghostwriter can be a profitable solution for any writer having trouble with the writing process while at the same time having many good stories to tell.

In my opinion, everyone has a story worth telling – that includes you.