Writing is hard. 

Presumably, if you’re following along with these writing tip entries, you’ve taken a stab at the process yourself and already know what I mean. If you haven’t, I encourage you to go and give it a try. Our inspirational stories and authors make the process look so effortless and simple. But there’s a lot to juggle and a lot that can go wrong. I mean, I didn’t get to thirty-one blog entries on an easy to accomplish task. 

However, if you’ve tried writing, there’s another truthism that is obvious on its face:

We do this because we enjoy it.

That’s right. All writers actually like writing. It’s really the only reason we put up with this exhausting, complex, taxing and overly complicated art form. Especially for most of us, it’s a passion hobby. If we didn’t have the drive and the self-gratification from doing this, we would quit. Talk to just about anyone and they’ll tell you they have a story they’d love to write themselves. But it takes a certain tenacity and joy to actually cross the finish line.

So we all start on the same foot. We come to the art with hope, idealism and enthusiasm. Then, there is a crossroads. Either you face the initial challenges of writing and continue or you give up on the enterprise. Those of us that push on are rewarded with the exhilaration of self-expression and creation. 

And yet, the more we explore this skill, the easier it can be to get lost in the weeds of doing it well. 

So today’s tip is to try and keep that initial joy and fun in your heart. 

What do I mean by this? Well, you really need to focus your writing on what you like. Yes, I’ve got a lot of tips and suggestions on how you can make compelling characters, gripping conflicts and exciting scenes. There’s a bevy of advice out there from other writers on what you should and should not do. But, above all, you should have fun with this. 

Because if writing starts to become a chore, it shows. If you’re penning a whole chapter on some tawdry exposition that you’re only putting in because you have to, it’s going to bleed into the page. Worse, if you start chasing genres, stories and themes that don’t excite you, you’re going to struggle to excite your readers. 

I see this quite frequently in the stories I edit. I’ll come across bland dialogue or even paragraphs of dry prose. Often it’s describing mundane actions or providing generic context for a character’s whereabouts or actions. It feels like the author felt they needed to put it in and so they banged out a paragraph or chapter to provide this explanation. 

And it’s boring. It lacks the enthusiasm compared to the parts that really compelled the writer. Readers aren’t picking up books to be bored. If you can’t stir any emotion in yourself when writing a passage, how do you expect to do so for your fans?

Which isn’t to say that these contextual passages aren’t necessary. I’m sure some artists hate drawing backgrounds. But they’re probably needed for most paintings. Or maybe a visual artist really hates feet. However, you can’t hide those forever in your work. People will notice. 

Instead, you should try and make these obligatory passages interesting to you. Is there some way you can present or contrive the exposition that amuses or entertains you? Rather than present a long series of sequential actions to explain how your character got from point A to point B, maybe you could condense that information to a conversation? I love writing dialogue, so I’d much prefer to have my character complain about the trials of travelling and booking an expensive hotel rather than just sticking that journey into some dry prose. Especially if I can make their audience react to that information in an interesting or amusing way. Perhaps my main character is griping about her accommodations to a rather unimpressed concierge who really just wants to have the conversation end so they can go on break? That opens up moments to poke fun at travelling instead of just listing that my protagonist went through security, waited in line to board the plane, had a long trip in the air, then had to wait for her bags, flag a taxi and finally check in to her booking. 

On the flip side, if you hate dialogue writing but love composing poetic prose, recontextualise that whole journey in a poem. Perhaps you can create a whimsical short chapter focused on the emotions your protagonist goes through trudging through this mundane process wholly oblivious to how miraculous modern travel truly is. Humans have conquered the skies and here our protagonist is whining about lack of snacks on an airplane and poor exchange rates for their homeland’s currency!

Whatever it is you do, make sure you have fun with it. The very first audience for your story is yourself. And if you aren’t enjoying it, the odds someone else will are pretty slim. So make sure you make something that instills pride in yourself. Something you’d be happy to point at and tell others, “Yes, I made this!”

So, when you’ve got some chapter or passage to insert into your narrative simply for context or exposition, ask yourself:

Am I enjoying writing this section? If not, what about it do I find boring?

What is the most important part of this section? Is there another way I can share that information that would be more entertaining?

And, above all else, am I having fun?