What is fun about writing fiction?

I don't know about 'fun', but 'rewarding'? Immortality.

No, not because I think people will still be reading my stuff hundreds of years from now (even if they were, I'D still be dead, so... who cares?) But immortality like getting to live more than one life. Each book, each character I create, is a chance to be someone else. PLUS I get to hit only the highlights of their lives! No need for me to sit through the boring parts, I just experience the really dramatic moments and then go off to live someone ELSE's dramatic moments.

So, essentially, the same as reading, but even more immersive and intense.

ETA: I'm currently published. The money's a nice bonus, I admit, but I think I'd write even if I wasn't making any.

It's fun to make up stuff. XD

I plan to publish and share my "stuff" to the world.

My favorite moments are when something -- something from the real world, or another story, or something that just randomly crosses my mind -- hits me square in the face, and it gives me so many ideas.

I love it when my characters speak to me. The fact that I can hear their voices, and know their stories better than anyone in the world ever can or will.

And I'm writing with the goal of publication.

The closest I can say is that I write just because it's an urge. It doesn't make much logical sense. A lot of times it really isn't fun to me and while getting published makes it much more fun, it's not the whole thing. So, I dunno, masochism maybe? LOL.

I've always loved coming up with stories. I didn't write much as a kid because my brother and I created an elaborate world for our games. We even made our own figures out of notebook covers because we didn't have enough figures for all our characters.

When we got older and stopped playing these games, I still felt the need to come up with stories, so I turned to writing. It was a way for me to be in control of my stories.

Since then, I haven't looked back. Telling stories is just so much fun. I've had to develop the patience for editing and revisions, though.

I love the feel of making something--of knowing that no one can tell this story the same way because it is absolutely, unequivocally mine.

I'm writing for myself right now, but perhaps someday I won't be.

I don't know about the BICHOK process being fun. It's more like a workout; you have to go through it to see some sort of result. I do it simply because it needs to be done, so I don't attach feelings to that part of the process. If I'm lucky, it becomes meditative to the point where I don't have to pay too much attention to writing at all. Maybe that's the one "fun" part, discovering a sweet spot where I don't have to look at the keyboard. I don't feel like stopping. I'm caught up in the scene and I just let it go. I'm in a trance at that point, something else comes through when I get out of the way. Then, I snap out of it and realize I'm done writing for that particular moment. And when I read it, I smile because while it needs some polishing up the work is rather good. That doesn't happen often, being in the sweet spot. When it does I'm thankful because the whole BICHOK thing can be boring as hell.

I'm with Captcha -- it's about leaving something behind. If I can contribute anything to this world, let it be stories. Even if one person reads it I feel fine... although I'll always aim higher. Also when I tell a story I lose myself and become something else, part of a world of my own making. I like being in that state, and knowing that another reality exists outside of myself and the world I live in. Secretly, my idea of heaven or the afterlife is to be a character in my stories. I write to give my soul a home when this body can't cut it anymore.

The fun part, I think, comes in reading the story, whether it's my own or someone else's. I love to escape, and books help me to do that when I want to.

I write for equal parts money and fun. Take away either and I'd find something else to do with my time. I don't know what's fun abut it. I don't know what's fun about many things I do. It;s just something I really enjoy doing, like going to the shooting range, or playing poker, or you name it.

I enjoy sitting down and writing almost anything. Whether it's fiction, or poetry, or an essay, or an article, or a letter to the editor, I find teh process of creation, of egtting what I want to say down in words, is fun.

But I started writing purely to make money, and was pleasantly surprised to find I do truly enjoy the process.

It's a magnet for hot chicks.

caw

I enjoy the writing process =) I love the feeling of being my own god, to create my own rules, specially when an idea strikes me in the middle of my writing and I know I have to write it

My favorite part of writing is when I read/edit my own work -it may be filled with flaws or badly written sentences or I may even hate what I wrote- but I enjoy it, it's like living another person's life.

But I also write because I hope to, one day, make other people happy when they read my work (as said before, it's about leaving something behind)

My favorite part is, probably, getting in the middle of a scene where everything is flowing, where all I'm doing is letting my fingers move over the keyboard. I don't know if I'm enjoying the scene that's coming out as if I were reading it instead of writing it, or if it's the actual process.

Not that there's much that I dislike, and most of the time I enjoy writing, but less so.

I write because I love creating worlds and stories in my head. I've done this as long as I can remember, but when I was 12 the worlds and stories I created moved from being acted out by toys, cut out people or myself, to being words on a page. I never really left that make-believe world of my childhood.

I currently write prehistoric fiction because I've studied palaeoanthropology for years now (at first as part of my degree but later on just for fun) and as I can't step into a time machine and actually observe their lives, bringing them to life by writing stories based on plausible interpretations of the current fossil evidence is the next best thing.

As for money, I really want to be able to make enough money writing to not need to have any other job. Selling my writing to fund my writing habit, basically...

The magic just sort of happens

Layla Nahar said:

time and story development, as opposed to what happens with the result. The actual writing of a story is quite different from thinking about it, and developing a story is different from, say, fantasizing about the characters. I'm really curious about that sort of thing. What do people like about the actual writing and/or the story development

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What a great question! When I sit down and start writing it takes a little bit of time to get rolling (about the first ten minutes or so), and then the words seem to flow out of me. The story appears to materialize right in front of me as I hit the keyboard. When I am in the zone and the words are flowing, I almost feel like I am no longer part of the process, just sort of watching it happen.

Sometimes (I know I should not do this), but when the session has ended, I go back to the place I started and I read what I have written. Occasionally I do not even remember writing portions of the story line, it just sort of flew out of my mind and into the word doc.

That is why I like writing. I have no musical ability, I cannot paint, I cannot sculpt, but when I write my creativity drives my hands to give life to the story in my head.

I really get a lot of joy out of putting words in the best order. The actual writing of sentences is much more fun, for me, than any of the plotting bollocks. I'd happily take a story someone else had mapped out for me and write that, if it meant I could just focus on jolly good word orders.

I seem to have had a lifelong urge to tell great whopping lies.

Fiction allows this. Even welcomes it!

I also like editing, copy editing, and proofreading. Who knows why? So the revision part is okay, too.

It's the characters I write about. I get to know them as I write them. In the end, I care about them. So much so, that I miss them all when I write, The End. Then they're gone. There is always a painful, post 'break-up' period, and then I have to 'meet' new characters. We do that let's-get-acquinted Tango—mostly it's me that's the reluctant dance partner. But all that needs happen is a quirky line, or an unforgettable scene, and then...

I'm hooked...let's get it on.

I second how great this question is and the answers are all very interesting.

For me, I'm a life long insomniac, my new love of writing has made the hours I lay in bed more enjoyable as I can explore characters and their world. Then when I sit down to type I can just watch the scenes and interactions unfold, while my fingers fly across the keyboard.

Writing was never enjoyable for me in school, I did a happy dance when I handed in my final English assignment and I'm still in awe that I'm actually writing for no other reason then I'm having fun at it. Though if I can ever whip my finished draft into something readable I would like to see if it could get published, but for now I'll keep going at my WIP.

I love the actual act of writing. Fun? Totally! You can have as much fun with it as you want. I love to think up absurd concepts and stories and as I write them I get to see how these things play out. I don't plan stories out before I write them. For me, that would take some of the fun out of it.

While writing is fun, I am hoping to really make it. I'm sure many of us could say the same thing. But I'm all in. I write for hours every week. I take classes. I read a lot. I go to literary events. All of this I enjoy and think is fun. I wouldn't be doing any of it if I didn't enjoy it.

I always always write just for fun! I don't find anything unfun about writing! Writing fiction is my spirit animal. (-:

Because my characters are far more interesting, funny, intelligent, wise, exciting, stupid, deranged, brave, sympathetic, brutal, paranoid, optimistic, multi-faceted, and witty than I could ever, or would ever be allowed to be in real life.

Plus, I'm crap at drawing.

It's fun stepping into a character's skin or head, constructing their environment and seeing what they do. That's what I have to feel when writing most fiction to minimise the frustration. I am still an amateur and can hardly even finish anything except smutty fanfics and suchlike (which I have legitimate fun with but they can't exactly break me into professionalism).

Sometimes, however, I'm "inspired," and the only thought is to get it all down in the form of a story. The story generally isn't very good then. Inspiration--it helps me reach the quotas, but it's not going to get me published. I intend to practice the patience required to take "inspiration," and develop it into a good story. Won't that be fun? I'm telling myself it will, damn it.

KTC said:

I always always write just for fun! I don't find anything unfun about writing! Writing fiction is my spirit animal. (-:

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This is such a delightful post!