Writing For Fun, Not Profit

What do you do? I hate that question. What do I do? I sit in front of a computer several hours a day. For about 30 minutes a day, I write fiction. Then for about 15 minutes a day, I format my webpage, upload new files and amended files, then check to make sure all the links work and then update my profile on MWC.

Then I spend anywhere from 1 – 2 hours finding a topic, researching that topic, and writing an essay, then finding a few quotes to highlight what I've written, and finally research the dates for essays that aren't a Monday, Wednesday, or Friday. And some days I just ignore the whole Little Bits of History thing altogether and only write the fiction piece. The rest of my time at the computer, I'm playing games. Important games, like Solitaire, and Find the Pictures.

I'm ahead of the game with the history essays. I'm up to the second week of July already. My plan, and I suppose if I publish a real plan I may be more inclined to actually do something about it … anyway I do have a plan.

The plan is to work on all the essays I need for the year for RGQ and get them ready for publication. And then I will write up the topics that I have researched already, finishing an entire book of essays. I've done this once and the essays can be seen on my website under the history portion. But in all honesty, I think my writing improved as the year progressed. First I wrote only small pieces for RGQ and then tried to flesh them out later. I find this extremely difficult to do.

And then, even when I began writing longer essays for publication, I still find them less than – well, I find them to be crappy. By the middle of the year and certainly by the end of the year, I found my writing style, my voice, my comfort zone, my way to tell the stories that make history the fun and wonderful playground that it truly is.

That means the Little Bits of History, Volume 1 isn't anything I would want published with my name on the cover. I've reworked the essays and think they are better than when I first started, but they certainly aren't up to what I consider my standard today.

Now, I write a four paragraph essay on a topic, find the quotes, edit the whole, and then chop it down to use for RGQ. There are very, very rare times when I send the entire essay in. Maybe all of three times, so far in over two years. Certainly not more than that, and probably only twice. I usually send in a two paragraph piece but there are times when I need three paragraphs to tell the story. I only use three of the 4-5 quotes I've used for my own text.

I have yet to be paid for any writing. I give it away for free. My fiction is free, also at my website and I've written nearly 100 pieces of the serialized work. I read it, my son reads it, and maybe a few other people read it. Maybe. Probably not.

The advantage to this is that if I ever believe that I have an entire novel there, I will simply take down the pages and publish it as a book and no one will have seen the dang thing before. It's there for now, and it's free for now. But eventually, it may cost you to read it. But sometimes that is what makes us think it is worth the time and effort. You get what you pay for. Maybe.

So why keep doing it? Because I can. Frankly, I've read other people's writing. Some of it is wonderful and they are magical story tellers who hold my interest in an iron grip. Page-turners, if you will. And then there are others who write ungrammatical, meandering, vague prose that means nothing. I know I write better than that. I absolutely know that to be true. And so I continue. Because I can. Because it is there. Because.

If you must, please feel free to point out the ungrammatical prose. It might do you some good.