Reasons for writing - #MRFWAuthor 52-week blog challenge

Year 2019 begins with another year of weekly entries in the #MFRWAuthor 52-week blog challenge. Yes, I signed up for another year. We begin with the first prompt that asks why we write: for fun, profit, or some other reason.

When answering that question or a variation of it in past years, the answer boiled down to "If I don't write, my brain will explode." That remains true with regard to the fiction publish; however, I do write for a living which means that I write what my clients want. Such writing encompasses blogs, website content, white papers (i.e., technical papers, case studies), and fiction based on their plots and character descriptions.

Therefore, one might say that I write for both fun and profit. It's not a bad way to live, although I do seem to spend an inordinate amount of time chasing down gigs.

So, I begin with projects that are supposed to start this month. Some of them are paying projects. I got an early start on the western anthology, so there's no rush to tackle that immediately. I do have a couple of ongoing projects that I'll be resuming work on. Next week. This week I'm playing catch-up after taking an unplugged vacation over the holidays.

"Unplugged?" you echo in astonishment.

Indeed. I abandoned email and social media entirely. I did not watch videos online, although I did watch some TV. Mainly, I read. I read books printed on paper, books that needed nothing but light to deliver me into swashbuckling worlds of romance and derring-do. Due to the rainy weather, I generally stayed indoors, curled on the sofa with a drink at hand. A few times I roused my lazy self to cook dinner. I slept in.

Let's face it: Adventure is all well and good, but it's damned exhausting. I'd rather just imagine myself in it, rather than experience its discomforts and risks in real life.

Hmmm. Maybe that's why I write. Laziness and a disinclination to risk my comfort.