Happiness and Satisfaction in Writing

This is something I've been considering for a while. I keep hearing writers complain about writing. They can't make a living. They can't put out books fast enough. They don't have enough ideas.

The occasional times I've asked the writer what they want, they say something along the lines of  "I want to make a living as a writer."

But when I press them, what they really want is that one idea, that one book, which will  make them a fortune. A fortune they can live off of for the rest of their lives.

The golden ticket. The winning lottery number. The magic beans that will save them from obscurity.

If you want a lot of money, there's a ton of ways to get it. But guess what? You generally have to work for it.

There aren't any shortcuts in writing. But why make yourself miserable over something you hate?

Maybe it's simply our society. We equate anything to do with work as terrible. We despise play as frivolous and stupid and for children only.

So if we have work that is fun, our culture can't handle it. We need to tear it down.

Or we can chose to change our paradigm.

I prefer the latter. There's no reason not to find as much joy in our work as we do in our play. It's merely a matter of changing our mindset.

Besides, I couldn't turn off the storytelling part of my mind if I wanted to.