Why Write If Not For The Love of It?
“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.” —Albert Schweitzer
I begin this article with a quote from a far better man than I will ever be. Doctor Schweitzer was a man with a passionate love for his fellow man. If you are unfamiliar or only vaguely familiar with his name, take some time to research him.
I quote him because he said something that is essential for the writer to keep in mind. Writing must make you happy. If it doesn’t, you will never become a true writer. The successful writers who are professionals are also amateurs in the original sense of the word. They do the thing for the sheer love of it.
None of us began writing without a love for the thing, but many of us become unhappy because we lack commercial success. Unfortunately, some of us beat the air in vain attempts to gather readers via social media badgering. That won’t garner success any more than most of the marketing schemes we run into online.
I’m not saying that marketing is unimportant. It is very important. However, many of us (including me) are not very competent marketers. We want our work to be appreciated, but our efforts to market ourselves bring little return despite perhaps expensive marketing “help.” Here, I’d like to share a favorite thought of mine. “Most fishing lures are designed to attract fishermen, not fish.”
However, we are discussing "success" as it relates to happiness. I firmly believe that a writer stands a zero per cent chance of success if writing doesn’t make him happy. There is something exhilarating about writing a really good sentence, paragraph, or scene. If it doesn't affect you that way, then perhaps you are not a writer.
I consider myself a writer, although I only write stories. Literature seems beyond my ability. Yet, even in my mysteries, I occasionally create a profound thought that is well phrased. That is extremely satisfying to me. If you know that feeling, then count yourself a happy writer. Improve your craft by constant practice, and be your own first and last editor. It will make you the happiest (and best) writer you can be—wherever the chips may fall. You may not become rich or famous, but that’s not the reason you write.
Never forget: you began writing because it made you happy.
I begin this article with a quote from a far better man than I will ever be. Doctor Schweitzer was a man with a passionate love for his fellow man. If you are unfamiliar or only vaguely familiar with his name, take some time to research him.
I quote him because he said something that is essential for the writer to keep in mind. Writing must make you happy. If it doesn’t, you will never become a true writer. The successful writers who are professionals are also amateurs in the original sense of the word. They do the thing for the sheer love of it.
None of us began writing without a love for the thing, but many of us become unhappy because we lack commercial success. Unfortunately, some of us beat the air in vain attempts to gather readers via social media badgering. That won’t garner success any more than most of the marketing schemes we run into online.
I’m not saying that marketing is unimportant. It is very important. However, many of us (including me) are not very competent marketers. We want our work to be appreciated, but our efforts to market ourselves bring little return despite perhaps expensive marketing “help.” Here, I’d like to share a favorite thought of mine. “Most fishing lures are designed to attract fishermen, not fish.”
However, we are discussing "success" as it relates to happiness. I firmly believe that a writer stands a zero per cent chance of success if writing doesn’t make him happy. There is something exhilarating about writing a really good sentence, paragraph, or scene. If it doesn't affect you that way, then perhaps you are not a writer.
I consider myself a writer, although I only write stories. Literature seems beyond my ability. Yet, even in my mysteries, I occasionally create a profound thought that is well phrased. That is extremely satisfying to me. If you know that feeling, then count yourself a happy writer. Improve your craft by constant practice, and be your own first and last editor. It will make you the happiest (and best) writer you can be—wherever the chips may fall. You may not become rich or famous, but that’s not the reason you write.
Never forget: you began writing because it made you happy.
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Musings and Mutterings
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