Writing for the Fun of It

I heard a fellow on TV the other day. He was interviewed on something or other and he blurted out that he didn’t much care about that ‘something or other’. What he did care about was that he was a writer and enjoyed it very much. So he did it. Luckily he was earning a fair living by doing so.

I was in a discussion meeting the other day, one of those gatherings in which people meet and talk about their businesses and what problems they are encountering. The purpose of the meeting was for individuals to share their ideas on how each other could be helped so their businesses would succeed and prosper. In that group were three writers. Each was struggling to find a market for their services, their products. They were clearly making a living not by writing but by other means. They wanted, however, to make their living from writing.

I write and love doing it. I do not get paid for it, however. I wish I could earn a revenue stream. It needn’t be large, but just something that indicates it has value.

Of course there are those in my past career life that would say I did get paid for writing. After all my work was conceptual and required written documentation to help clients realize the ideas they needed to work with to succeed on the subject matter of my consulting. And thus the consulting report was written and consumed by clients; and regulators interested in understanding if the clients were abiding by the advice and counsel provided.

Such were written products of my work and thus I was paid for the work. The writing seemed incidental at the time but evidently it was the primary product. The deliverable.

Today I sort out opinions and ideas and write about that. I write about the journey of my life in modern times as an ever aging person. Much is present to write about. It is quite personal, of course, and thus not always interesting to others. But it is interesting to at least one person – me. And so I continue to write about it.

Please understand – those of you who are still reading this! – my writing this blog is a way to better understand me by myself. It is a self examination process. Doing this I learn a lot about myself, but I also learn a lot about human nature and see others in a new light. Life and its mysteries take on new meaning and dynamics. New ideas about existence come to light and I am able to use them in further examination.

My volunteer work follows from my career work. Analysis, research, human behavior, business processes, markets of products and services – all these things are part and parcel of my career. What ideas are missing and which are needed? What is working well and what is not working well? What can we use to fix what is broken? Or should we replace the broken with something new? If so, what would that be?

You see the dynamic. Always changing. Always fresh material to view and prod its unfolding. The process is fascinating. Like laboratory work. Experimenting and viewing the results. Wondering how it all works. Together or apart?

Whatever it is, it is the stuff to write about. I ponder this material, these words, and then let them come into being. That alone is satisfying. Whether it is of use to others seems to be of marginal interest. But one can hope.

Meanwhile the mind goes on in its ponderous manner wondering about things and seeing how things might become in the future. There’s another wonder to write about.

Do others spend so much time doing this sort of thing? I wonder if I’ll ever know the answer to that! Perhaps it is another avenue to write about?

January 19, 2016