Writing Time

If you write for a living as I do then you are probably thinking that writing time is all the time - and yes it is, but I suppose I am talking about the kind of writing you might do for yourself. When your writing time is mostly taken up by concerns about earning enough to pay the bills well then you are not writing for yourself you are writing for a paymaster. Not that professional writing is not good - I wouldn't do it if I didn't like writing - but it is not always the fun occupation that you think writing should be.

When the majority of your writing time is aimed at making money then there can be a tendency to worry more about the number of words you are using as opposed to the quality of those words. For example if you write a poem then you have to have a measured number of words to provide the metre of the poem but you also need to have the right kind of words to express your thoughts. In order to keep your professional writing as fresh as possible it sometimes pays to take time out and write the stuff that is fun.