# Writing > General Writing >  do you like being a writer?

## cacian

or is there something else you would describe as better?

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## Volya

Why would somebody write things if they don't like being a writer?

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## cafolini

So that Cacian can ask a most stupid question.

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## papillondemai

> Why would somebody write things if they don't like being a writer?


They could be obsessed with writing and not necessarily "like" being a "writer.

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## papillondemai

> So that Cacian can ask a most stupid question.


Not so stupid. The question actually shows some insight into the motivations of a "writer." I can imagine a person who has somehow through great discipline committed themself to writing through to completion something as complex as a novel having a love-hate relationship with this craft. The word "like" is too banal to use in regard to writing. I don't think "writers" make themselves sit down for long hours to write because they "like" it. The greatest writers did it not because they liked it; they did it because they were compelled. 

"Something else .... better ....?" Sophocles would say "Not to be born is, past all prizing, best ...."

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## cacian

> Why would somebody write things if they don't like being a writer?


I think writing could become a chore if dependable on how many words one must produce rather then how many pleasures/ideas one must derive from it. this I would think it could become a task rather then a gift.
I would imagine an athlete the same if under pressure of winning rather then enjoying. The drive or the motivations are different or consequential.
the other thing to bear in mind is the knowing how to write for the enjoyment side of it rather then a task. we all write but it does not mean we all know how to enjoy it. I am aware of that and so I chose poetry instead because I know I do not enjoy lengthy paragraphs of writing.
I wish to convey something I will simply use poetry for its shortness and unconsuming time frame. Things can be said using few words rather then pages. that is my way of expressing myself and enjoying writing at the same time. 
to master the skill of writing is to enjoy it fully. when and if we get to understand what to write and how to express it in a way that makes us feel good is I think an essential of liking writing.
I believe that writing should light quick and no longer then it needs to be. Too much can become tiresome and demotivating.

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## papillondemai

No one cares if the writer "likes" or "enjoys" writing. Especially the reader. The reader doesn't sit around saying to himself, "wow! the writer really liked writing. I can tell he enjoyed writing this." And for the writer to spend any time thinking about how he likes and enjoys writing is self-indulgent and meaningless. The trademark of a dilettante or a person with a hobby.

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## Volya

But surely it can be nice to just contemplate how much you enjoy doing something.

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## cacian

> But surely it can be nice to just contemplate how much you enjoy doing something.


why not? what is wrong with enjoying all the time?

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## hannah_arendt

I love writing but for now it`s not my job. However, I would like to try it one day :Smile:

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## Volya

> why not? what is wrong with enjoying all the time?


I was replying to papillondemai, who said that thinking about how much you enjoy writing is self-indulgent and meaningless.  :Smile:

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## cacian

> I was replying to papillondemai, who said that thinking about how much you enjoy writing is self-indulgent and meaningless.


Oh sorry i misread what you wrote  :Smile: 
writing is enjoyment and all the time otherwise i won't bother with it.

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## cacian

> I love writing but for now it`s not my job. However, I would like to try it one day


hi hannah nice to see you back. i think it is better to keep writing out of a job and into something we do as a hobby it would write more sense  :Smile:

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## hannah_arendt

> No one cares if the writer "likes" or "enjoys" writing. Especially the reader. The reader doesn't sit around saying to himself, "wow! the writer really liked writing. I can tell he enjoyed writing this." And for the writer to spend any time thinking about how he likes and enjoys writing is self-indulgent and meaningless. The trademark of a dilettante or a person with a hobby.


You are right that for reader it doesn`t matter. However, I am not going to do something, which doesn`t give me any pleasure.

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## papillondemai

Pleasure in the process? For me, sitting down for hour upon hour of actually doing the mechanical work of writing is like slow lonely torture. Kind of like the Chinese water torture where they endlessly let drops of water drip onto your forehead. Writing is not a "job" either. The only pleasure should come from finding that the end product is finely crafted and composed and that it elicits some sort of an "aha" moment from the reader. I write only because I have something I have to say. Do any of you have something you HAVE to say?

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## papillondemai

> But surely it can be nice to just contemplate how much you enjoy doing something.


Nice? Sure. Go ahead. Contemplate how much you enjoy writing. But the artist contemplates on what he has to say.

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## Volya

> Nice? Sure. Go ahead. Contemplate how much you enjoy writing. But the artist contemplates on what he has to say.


Some people write because they enjoy writing, not because they have some message they want to spread.

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## Calidore

Most do both. Why does it have to be either-or?

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## papillondemai

> Most do both. Why does it have to be either-or?


Okay. I have to admit there are times, eg., I am on a roll and my mind is going faster than I can type, when I can say I actually enjoy writing. But I don't contemplate upon them. I don't want to risk invoking any jinxes. I always worry about whether it will ever happen again. Kind of like a neurotic woman who constantly worries about whether she will ever have another orgasm. How about transferring pages and pages of handwritten notes into the computer so you can edit them into a final story? Do you consider that writing? Do you enjoy that?

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## cafolini

> Some people write because they enjoy writing, not because they have some message they want to spread.


Any one who writes and posts what he/she writes does it because he/she has something to share, spread, a message, show what they have with good or bad morals. Period. Case closed. Elaborating on this is ludicrous.

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## Darcy88

> Pleasure in the process? For me, sitting down for hour upon hour of actually doing the mechanical work of writing is like slow lonely torture. Kind of like the Chinese water torture where they endlessly let drops of water drip onto your forehead. Writing is not a "job" either. The only pleasure should come from finding that the end product is finely crafted and composed and that it elicits some sort of an "aha" moment from the reader. I write only because I have something I have to say. Do any of you have something you HAVE to say?


I agree with this. For me it isn't a matter of liking the act of writing so much as it is liking being a writer. There are times when writing is truly enjoyable, exhilarating even, but typically it is laborious, the reward lying not in the doing but in the end result. There are other arts the practicing of which pleases me more, such as painting and singing, but I do not aspire to actually be a painter or a singer as I do a writer. Somewhere along the line writing became a basic necessary function, like eating, sleeping and drawing breath. I don't write because I derive pleasure from it. I write simple because I must. It is imperative.

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## cacian

> Any one who writes and posts what he/she writes does it because he/she has something to share, spread, a message, show what they have with good or bad morals. Period. Case closed. Elaborating on this is ludicrous.


cafo it has to be pointed out thought that there is quite a margin between being a writer and writing. one is a profession and the other is just because we can. I think my question with regards to someone bearing that title. could you imagine you being a writer and recognised for being one?

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## cafolini

Then the question should have been "would you like being a writer?" That's a different thing.

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## Darcy88

> cafo it has to be pointed out thought that there is quite a margin between being a writer and writing. one is a profession and the other is just because we can. I think my question with regards to someone bearing that title. could you imagine you being a writer and recognised for being one?


There are people who are talented writers and are devoted totally to their craft who don't make a living from their writing. Same with many other creative arts. To me the term "writer" denotes both professionals and dedicated amateurs. I know a virtuoso musician who makes nothing from his music but has truly incredible talent. He deserves to be a called a musician.

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## papillondemai

> Somewhere along the line writing became a basic necessary function, like eating, sleeping and drawing breath. I don't write because I derive pleasure from it. I write simple because I must. It is imperative.


 There you go. That's what I was getting at. Well said.

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## Jack of Hearts

There's a lot of pretense in here. But we can afford that to the question, which is embedded with it synthetically and invites it with open arms.

This reader would trade anything to have another interest or skill (?). Most people think they've got something literary to offer because they sat through approximately 12-20 years of school. Maybe most people have a 'special feeling' about themselves, conveniently hidden away in something as subjective as art, conveniently in perhaps the most subjective manner of art there is-- creative writing, as it deals extensively with the invisible. That'd be a fine place to derive some personal worth from, a place that nobody else could touch or access but could forever be mistaken about or ignorant of. A haven. An art.

Having edited a great many pieces of both fiction and poetry now, it could be said this reader is ruined. Some of what passes under his nose is echoes tumbling around someone else's head, not an original thought or true sentiment in the lining, but perhaps a general and vague longing for something that Jack of Hearts can't articulate. And other times it's pure posturing-- hillwalker once said, in a PM, that we share here to get feedback, yes, but more tellingly 'to show off.' 

In something as purely psychological as the written word, you can't hide. Not from a reader who has a little bit of experience and half a critical eye on your offering. A written piece always says more than it means to. Whether that's about the writer himself or the reader's own psychology, or to what degree a mélange of both, you could argue all day. But you will know. You will know when someone reads something you wrote and flies a comment that shows you leaked a little more of your psyche onto the page than you ever intended, and the nature of that leak will speak louder than the greatest intentions you ever put into the words themselves.

Do you enjoy being a writer? A better question might be why you feel the need to be something in the first place.






J

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## breathtest

David Foster Wallace said he spends about an hour a day writing and eight hours a day worrying about not writing. I'd say that's quite true for me, for what it's worth. It's as good a reason to write as any.

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## Darcy88

> Do you enjoy being a writer? A better question might be why you feel the need to be something in the first place.
> J


It helps me focus. There are only so many hours in the day and so many years to a lifetime. If I didn't have writing to centre my creative energy and ambition around I would squander myself achieving dilettantish mediocrity in the host other arts I like practicing. With writing at least I have a chance at attaining excellence somewhere down the road. And there is great satisfaction to be had from being excellent at something. 

I don't really understand the point of your question actually. Would you have asked the same thing of Shakespeare, Tolstoy or Joyce? Does an artist really have to justify themselves to you in such a way?

Maybe it has nothing at all to do with some "special feeling" and people simply recognize the value and importance of literature and wish to participate in it themselves.

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## Jack of Hearts

> It helps me focus. There are only so many hours in the day and so many years to a lifetime. If I didn't have writing to centre my creative energy and ambition around I would squander myself achieving dilettantish mediocrity in the host other arts I like practicing. With writing at least I have a chance at attaining excellence somewhere down the road. And there is great satisfaction to be had from being excellent at something. 
> 
> I don't really understand the point of your question actually. Would you have asked the same thing of Shakespeare, Tolstoy or Joyce? Does an artist really have to justify themselves to you in such a way?


And-




> Maybe it has nothing at all to do with some "special feeling" and people simply recognize the value and importance of literature and wish to participate in it themselves.


Not interested in argument, but would stir the water a little and just selectively point this out-- then leave it to implication. 





J

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## papillondemai

> There's a lot of pretense in here. But we can afford that to the question, which is embedded with it synthetically and invites it with open arms. J


Here let me do a little of my own editing so I can show off more tellingly ....

"But we can afford that to the question, which is embedded with it synthetically and invites it with open arms. There _is_ a lot of pretense in here."

What is that quote below? Are you referring to yourself in the third person? Hmmm.... 

"....perhaps a general and vague longing for something that Jack of Hearts can't articulate..."

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## Maria May

I'm not a writer,but I enjoy writing and I'd like to be a writer one day  :Smile:

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