"Just have fun" versus reality

Hey, hotshots.

A dictum I hear said a lot when it comes to writing is "just have fun". Of course I can only talk from my perspective. But isn't this the weakest advice?

Writing can be amazing fun. You can go into the high of being in a character's mind, or feel the thrill of a hunt as your protagonist finally accomplishes their goal, or the crushing sadness of a sidekick's despair which is somehow still sweet because it feels so real as you scribble down their words, or, or, or.

Writing is fun in those times because it's as easy as shutting your eyes and letting someone else write the words for you. There is no effort. It's basically pure inspiration.

Writing gets harder when you have to pin down all the ideas you've just chundered everywhere, and make them into a cohesive text with plot and structure. When you must grow up and make a story from your words.

And this can be very, very hard. (I work inspiration first. When I plot, I tend to lose interest in the story itself because once I have everything planned, what's the point of writing it? I know what will happen. Done. But this defeats the purpose of what a plot should do. And so making a decent story becomes difficult.)

You will have to do work, whatever your writing method. You will have to work hard. You will hit roadblocks and stop signs and painful accidents where you have to go back later to rewrite, and you will have to learn that it's okay to screw up in the first draft, and find the courage to create from it a beautiful finished tale.

We all know there are so many times when writing isn't fun! When staring at a blank page, for instance. This awful draining gaze at a white monitor screen. The difficult plot twists. The strange discombobulated mess of a character when you forget their purpose. All those sentences that form words and pages that are worth less than crap when you read them over. That's not fun!

"Grab all the fun you can", I say. There's a lot of it to gather. But don't get discouraged as soon as you stop having 'fun' for a little bit. We all know you'll wake up one day at 4am, swearing as you search the room for something to write your new novel idea down with.

The frustration is worth it. If you love writing. You somehow get the dogged determination to continue on. Writers can be some of the most stubborn people, because this steel grin is exactly right for writing. When it's not fun.