The Book Worm

Here’s something I don’t understand. If you paint for fun, or knit for fun, or you garden, or run, or otherwise do something in your spare time simply because you enjoy it, that’s okay. No one looks down their nose at you and says, gosh, what’s the point of it if you’re not doing it for money?  That would be a completely bizarre thing to say to a crocheter or a swimmer.

But if you write for fun, that’s is a completely normal thing to hear.

Why do you write fanfiction? Why don’t you write real stories and get published? Why are you wasting your time? Wail wail, I don’t understand the point of all this!

I don’t mean the people who say that as a compliment. Like, as if we agree that the pinnacle for a writer is to be published by a traditional publisher (I don’t believe this is true, by the way), telling someone they are very good at writing stories and should be published is a compliment, and that’s very kind of them to say. I don’t mean that. I mean the people who get really cranked up and angry about the existence of fanfiction in particular, and tell fanfiction writers that what they do is fake and pointless, and the only “real” writing is writing for publication via traditional publishers and getting a pay cheque. Full stop.

Some of us are just doing it for fun. The purpose of the writing is fun. That is the point. That is the only point. It’s really not rocket science.

Seriously: go tell someone who goes for a run four times a week that they should be aiming for the olympics or else they should just stay at home on the couch. Or tell the knitters in your neighbourhood that they should set up a small business, because what is the point of all this knitting for friends and family? So you like to garden? Jesus, get off your ass and farm properly, woman! This little patch of flowers isn’t going to get you anywhere, is it. Pointless.

Read women wrap up!

Through the books