Samhain Publishing Ltd Weblog

Putting the fun back into writing

Writing has, for me, always been about the fun of a good story. Adding in aggressive turnips, or having a character get all sarcastic was just for my amusement, and that of the friends I used to show my work to. It’s why there are veiled references to some of my favourite TV shows in there, or how I ended up challenging my friends to find as many WWE wrestlers in the book as they could ( Ilfayne’s Bane has five. Answers on the back of a ten pound note, please). I wrote because it was fun. Getting published was just a bonus.

But, of course, when you’re writing with publication (and readers) in mind it changes a little. I’ve written a scene in my current work that I’m pretty sure will have to be cut, because my editor will go ‘Ewwww’. And while that might be the reaction I want, I have to face it, romance readers don’t want Ewwww. And I kind of fell into romance writing by accident, so actually setting out to specifically write one was a challenge. And not quite as much fun. Because I kept feeling I had to be serious.

And then….It’s been a strange six months. Because six months ago I was formally diagnosed with bipolar. I’ve had it all my life ( I remember having my first episode at about ten) and in the back of my head I always knew what it was. But six months ago it got much, much worse, very suddenly. So I bit the bullet and got myself diagnosed as Officially Loopy. This was not a shock to anyone who knows me. In fact my husband’s reaction was ‘Tell me something I don’t know’. But the after-effects of that diagnosis and the subsequent treatment have had an affect I didn’t anticipate. They sucked all the fun out of writing. Well, they’ll do that if the doctors give you tablets where you can’t even talk properly, let alone type a coherent sentence. Various tablets gave different reactions, but the result has been pretty similar all the way through. Writing wasn’t fun. And if it’s not fun for me, I can be fairly sure it won’t be fun for you to read.

But now I think I have it solved. I’m currently not on any medication, which helps. But what has helped most of all is this. I’m just going to write. For the first draft, I’m not going to worry about anything, I’m just going to write it all out, slap in whatever seems fun to me, and sort it out in the edit. And I think it’s working. Ilfayne’s snark has come back and he’s set fire to someone’s backside. A turnip just made an unexpected, and quite deadly, appearance. One of my characters got drunk and accidentally slept with the wrong person. Oops. And a bit part player has suddenly morphed into a clone of the Undertaker. Which should scare the pants off all my other characters nicely.

It’s fun again.

And that is how it should be. Writing should be fun. And if it’s fun for me, I hope it’ll be fun for you too.

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Julia Knight tries hard not to be too loopy, with varying results. Feel free to check how this works regarding aggressive turnips in her Fantasy Romance ILFAYNE’S BANE

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