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@karthmin My ‘theme’ makes for amusing conversations when I try to tell people about it. ‘yeah, I really like the theme of hope. No, it has nothing to do with my name. I just like it is all.’

Though… just writing with nothing in mind? *swallows and shuffles through stacks of outlines* even my ‘fun writing’ has a vague outline of where I’m going to go – in my head if nowhere else. I can’t operate well otherwise.

For me, fun writing is generally something to do to relax after other work is done. More often than not, it’s a snippet that I’ll be able to use in a book somewhere, or it’s part of a character’s backstory or some legend in my world. I guess it depends on the definition of fun too, because I recently wrote a 10k story that was a very loose allegorical legend of John the Baptist, basically encapsulates the whole ‘there is more than you can see’ theme, sets up some character backstories, and was painful *coughs* I mean, umm, touching as well. Not to mention grown ENFP healers are so much fun to write. So… it was written during my ‘fun’ time and was for fun but has a theme and is something I’ll publish as a bonus or some such someday.

And… I was going somewhere with that. *frowns* Not sure where.

But if one is writing with a mission as opposed to just hobby writing, then fun stuff should take second place to the main work. By the same count, writing just to get a break, or whipping up a piece of flash fiction or some such can be both useful to get into your story, characters, and the world, as well as help hone your craft in general.

@raemarie Writing just for fun/a hobby isn’t a bad thing. My main reason for publication is not so much the money as it is wanting others to read it. Because while writing can help the author as much as the reader, I do want it to help readers, not just be something I do for myself. And if I’m going to publish, then I’m going to try to learn and market and make a profit. Both because the ‘laborer is worthy of his hire’ and because, if I can make money, it will help me be able to produce better work or market more which will spread the writing to more people. So money can be part of the mission, not just wanting a few extra dollars for your dragon hord. (not that I’ve anything against dragon hords, you understand)

Also, like said, @taylorclogston no one is forcing anyone to write just for money. Now people do need to make a living, be it at a factory or working at Culvers or anything else. Most people don’t actually make a full living off of just writing, and if you wanted to, then you’d need to approach it differently, treating it as a business rather than a mission (there might be overlap, but either business would be your main push with mission on the side or vice versa). So I’m not sure most people could just earn money for writing and write their passion to their heart’s desire. By the same count, I don’t think most people should or would try. They would earn their money by something else, perhaps teaching or mentoring or something unrelated then would write their passion as more a part-time deal with the extra time they have. I think both pursuits can be valid, though I personally would not want to force myself to write just to make a living for fear I’d never be able to write anything else. I’d find a job I enjoyed (currently I’m a manager at Culvers and do writing mentoring) and then write in my spare time and go from there.