Seven Pleasures of Writing

One question every non-writer asks when they learn what I do is, "Are you published?"

It used to bother me. Is being published the only justification for the hours I spend honing my writing skills and polishing my prose? Is it the only measure of success for a writer? No, because true writers don't write to publish; they write because they must.

When I was in elementary school, we had English Composition classes. I loved them as I could write my stories and get marks for them -- rewards for writing what I imagined. It wasn't work; it was fun. It still is. So, even though I earn next to nothing from my writing, I can't stop.

Both my children write well and I steal this idea of seven pleasure of writing from my son's blog, RunBikeNerd. He explores seven (a prime number that can't be divided) pleasures in his life and I thought I'd do the same, although to me, seven is more of a magic number.

My writing pleasures are (in no particular order):

• seeing the first chapter of a novel emerge in my imagination
• hearing my characters' voices for the first time
• wrestling with descriptive words until they say what I see
• the surprise twists in my plots that even I didn't predict
• watching rapt faces at a reading
• changing a passive verb to an active one
• using the subjunctive so it doesn't sound weird

Perhaps every writer should pause and ask "Why do I write?". If you can list the seven pleasures (or more) you derive from the process, you don't need to justify the time you spend doing it. Being a writer is who you are, not what you do.