The Joy of Writing Fiction

I have been a professional writer for many years in the non-fiction space. When I was younger, I had a desire to write fiction, but at the time I never had the confidence to start, so I put it off. It wasn’t until the pandemic happened, and I needed to channel my attention into something new to keep me sane. Being locked in with your family, and trying to home-school, as well as do your day job work was tough; I’m sure many people will relate to this. I needed something I could work on as a distraction. I could spend as little or as much time as necessary to see results. Hello creative writing.

I had lots of story ideas, and I really liked the idea of writing for children, so with that in mind I started learning and writing; short stories to start with. I took online classes with platforms like LinkedIn Learning, Masterclass, and The Great Courses. I also embarked on a nine-month creative writing class by applying to take the Faber Academy – Write a Novel course; I will write a review of that soon as I just completed the course.

With all this learning and story writing, I reflected on why I have fallen in love with creative writing so much. So, in true internet blog form, I have written a list post.  In no particular order.

1. Something I Can do By Myself

If the pandemic was good at one thing, it was making sure you couldn’t do anything with other people, unless you wanted to sit for hours on a Zoom call, which I didn’t. The great thing about writing is it left you alone with a word-processor and your own thoughts. That’s all you need. Okay, you work with editors, proofreaders, beta readers later, but, for the vast majority of the creative work, getting your first draft and revision completed, it’s just you.

As a self-confessed introvert, that suits me just fine. I am not shy; I love talking to people, but I recharge my mental batteries by being alone, and what better activity to do alone: writing.

Throughout lockdown, when the daily homeschooling finished, and I had struggled through my day job work, I would relax and work on short stories. Even if it was only half an hour. That private writing time, with my headphones on, allowed me to reset from a hard day. Would I say it was a kind of therapy? Yeah, sure, that works. That leads us on to point number two.

2. Relaxing and Calming

After a busy day home-schooling and working, I found the simple act of creative writing to be calming and relaxing. I was working on short stories with no particular agenda. There were no editors waiting for them. No pressure from publishers. It was just for my benefit. Will I release those stories? Maybe; I could put them out into a small collection for my own gratification. But there were no expectations. I could write a story and have fun with it.

I like to write middle-grade fiction, so I aimed my stories at children. Having two kids in the house, a daughter (now thirteen), and a son (now ten), also meant I had a small audience. I nervously gave my kids the stories, as they both read before bed, and they loved them. Quite how honest their reaction was is anyone’s guess, as family members will always be nice when they read your work. But they appeared to enjoy the stories. We discussed the plots, and they even gave me some useful feedback from a kids’ perspective to improve them. That was a lot of fun.

3. Doesn’t Require a Lot of Equipment

In my career (training and public speaking) I have often taught people that working within limitations and constraints forces you to be creative with what you have available. This is certainly true with writing. All you really need as a modern writer is a computer and a word-processor. You don’t even need a fancy computer. An old hand-me-down works too.

If you really want to talk about limitations, then you don’t actually need a computer. You can produce work that is just as fun to read with a pad and pencil as anyone with the latest Apple Super-Duper-MacBook-Pro.

If you use a computer, then you can even get away with not paying for any writing software—legally, of course. If you own a Mac, then it comes with Pages, Apples own word processor, and it’s pretty good. You can also download Libre Office, which is a free of cost, and an open source equivalent to Microsoft Office. LibreWriter is a very capable Microsoft Word equivalent, and it won’t cost you a penny. If you are a fan of Google, then you can use their Google Docs, cloud based word processor. So many great options.

4. Learning the Craft is Fun

Whenever I embark on any new hobby or interest, I am the sort of person who has to learn all I can about the subject. I find learning about something just as much fun as doing the activity itself, and creative writing it no exception. As I already mentioned, I took several online self-paced classes, and also undertook the nine month Faber Academy writing program. All of which I enjoyed immensely.

I have also bought and read many books on fiction writing and writing craft. It is so satisfying to read about another writer’s experience, and see how they tackle writing a book, even if you don’t like their approach. It is all valuable information. 

During lockdown, I upped my walking, as that was pretty much all you could do if you left the house, so I sought podcasts to listen to. My favourite was a British show called Writer’s Routine, where the host interviews a writer every episode to talk about their routine and process for writing a book. I started with the latest episode and worked my way backwards through the catalog. I listened to every episode. I haven’t done that with any other show. Super Nerd or what!!

5. Building Worlds in Your Imagination

Now to the writing itself. Fiction writing is partly about world-building, especially in science fiction and fantasy writing. It is so much fun designing a fictional world, and revealing it gradually on the page so that the reader can see a vivid image of your creation in their minds-eye. 

I set my first novel in the future on an established Mars colony. You can just imagine the amount of fun I am having with that. With the story set in the future, I can take liberties and come up with some really cool technology. World-building through writing can be powerful.

When I was on the Faber Academy course, I was reading one submission from a classmate. We had to read and critique each other’s work. In the extract she posted, there were a few lines that described a mechanical bird flying down and landing on someone’s shoulder. 

As I was writing up my feedback, I mentioned that in two sentences; she conjured up a vivid image in my mind that would take a team of visual effect specialists weeks, if not months to achieve in a film. This is why writing fiction and world-building is so much fun. In a few sentences, you can get the same result in your mind with only a laptop that a movie might take ages to achieve. No disrespect to anyone who works in the movie business. Your work is amazing, but the simplicity and power of just a few short sentences struck me. Where else can you achieve so much impact?

6. Understanding People Better

Creative writing isn’t all world-building. The characters we write are just as important. I have found that by trying to write convincing and fun characters; I understand people better. If I write about a character that is trying to deal with a tough situation, I think about their predicament. I will do research to learn about their struggles, and I will use all this to bring a convincing character to life. I guess what I am saying is writing excellent characters improves your empathy towards others, and your understanding of the world.

Something I found very hard, and am paying particular attention to in my first novel, is making my characters multi-dimensional. Trying to add layers to their personality beyond what is just required to move the plot forward. It’s hard.

It’s probably the hardest aspect, but you just know when you get it right as you get a sense of what the character is like in your mind outside the plot. Your mind races with other situations and scenarios. I have added a lot of extra characterisations by having parts of the character’s personality just leap out at me. I guess this is what a lot of writers mean when they say their characters talk to them. I always thought that was rather cliched, but I think there is something to it now.

Also, if someone is mean to you in real life, you can get your revenge on the page. So, watch out. Muhahahaha

7. Improves Your Observational Skills

I have found that since writing fiction; I am better at observing people and their behaviours. A mum arguing with a toddler in the supermarket. A couple having an argument in the street. The old man who goes to the local park every day and sits on a bench feeding the ducks. All very mundane interactions, but when you write fiction, you pay attention. I have even started jotting some of these interactions down in a notebook, as you never know when they will form the inspiration for a story.

When I was walking my son to school, we were walking behind a dad and his two daughters. They were in an earlier school year to my son, but what I noticed was these two girls were identical twins. They looked completely identical in their appearance. The only difference was the colour of their jackets and a hairband on their heads.

As I was walking home after dropping my son off, I thought to myself, wouldn’t it be interesting if two girls used their identical looks as a superpower, and a way to cause mischief in school? That simple interaction led to me writing a short story called Operation Body Swap. A fun story about two cheeky young girls who hatch a plan. One simple interaction and subsequent thoughts when taking my son to school led to an entire story. Nice.

8. It’s Challenging

I would be lying if I said writing fiction was easy. It’s blooming hard. Much harder than non-fiction. With non-fiction, you spend a lot of time preparing a detailed outline, do all your research, and then write to the outline that you signed off with the publisher. It’s quite linear.

With fiction, you are trying to hold a cohesive plot together, along with subplots, and write interesting, multi-dimensional characters. I find this very hard, but that is something I like. I don’t want it to be easy. Easy is boring. Getting to the end of a draft and having a complete story that makes sense is satisfying.

Sometimes, when writing Diary of a Martian, I got stuck and wasn’t sure how to progress the plot, even though I had a fairly detailed beat sheet. I struggled with some details. Once I had solved those problems, I was left with a draft that I was happy with, and that feels great. I can’t wait to get my novel finished and through the revision stage as the thought of reading that final draft is exciting.

Like with everything in life, if something is challenging and difficult to achieve, you will appreciate the results so much more.

These are some of the main reasons I find writing such a joy. Do you agree with what I have said? Are there any other reason that you find writing a joy? If so, leave a comment and let me know.