Another day, another choice. Consider these two statements and see how each feels to you:
- I commit to having a good time when I’m engaged in my creative work and community
- I commit to joyless suffering and to discovering how much discomfort I can endure
I’ve written about finding the joy in writing before. While there is some truth to the negative adages about creative writing, too many creative people take them as gospel.
“You simply sit down at the typewriter, open your veins, and bleed.” – Ernest Hemingway
“I hate writing, but I love having written.” – Dorothy Parker
“Writing is like sex. First you do it for love, then you do it for your friends, and then you do it for money.” – Virginia Woolf
“If you want to write, if you want to create, you must be the most sublime fool that God ever turned out and sent rambling.” – Isaac Asimov
Yes, three of these quotes are humorous and all are hyperbolic, but they also point to a philosophic vein that says anyone who pursues creative arts must be angry, depressed, or crazy, especially if they want to be any good at it. And modern students of writing often quote them without humor, as though their predecessors were providing advice on living, rather than commiserating about the occasional difficulty we experience in our creative pursuits.
And that’s not even taking into account that we live in a capitalist system that believes nothing is worthwhile unless it generates income for shareholders. Is there any hobby or expression that we can’t make joyless toil by converting it into a money making scheme?
Writing shouldn’t feel like we’ve gone ten rounds in a boxing ring. You’re not Rocky. You don’t have to take punches and come back for more.
Choose to have a good time when you’re writing.