Skip to main content

What’s writing as a hobby look like?



Image by Nile from Pixabay

Writing comes in many forms, from journal writing to short stories to full length fiction stories to writing articles and non fiction books and that is just a sample of the types of writing you can experiment with.

First off let’s answer the number question… can writing be a hobby? 

The answer is yes! Writing can be a fun creative outlet that you can enjoy writing as much or as little as you want. Hobbies are a fun way to express yourself through creativity so it makes sense that writing is seen as a hobby. 

When is writing no longer a hobby?

I believe once you start making money from writing, you have transitioned from writing being a hobby to now writing bringing in some passive or an entire individual’s income. But today I’m not talking about making money writing, this is about writing as a hobby- just for fun. 

Let’s talk about some of the different types of writing categories that you may want to try:

Journal writing as a hobby

Some people like journal writing because they can write about the current day and what happened in the day and how it made them feel. You may write about the past, good or bad events to help heal traumatic events. You may also write about the future and how you would like it to look and how you want to get there. 

Journal writing is really a way of writing, where it doesn’t matter how you write or how you write. It just matters that you let your thoughts down. There are no rules to journaling writing. Also, most people when journal writing don’t want anyone to read what they have written because it is so personal. This is absolutely fine. 

Find something that is easily written on but also easily lockable. For example, if you write on paper, use a lockable journal. Or find a lockable hiding place to put your journal in. You may not need a lock so this may not be applicable to you. 

There are also places on your phone you can use, like different built in apps. So you can literally be anywhere and be able to write down your thoughts. You may even write it and then delete it later. It’s a symbol of burning paper once we have written down something we need to get off our chests but have no one read. By the way I do not recommend burning what you write. Too much of a chance you will get burned or something near it will. But you could try ripping the paper. That way, no one can read it and even stash different pieces of ripped paper in different bin bags, if you are really worried.

However, as much as it may feel weird and oddly personable to journal write, it’s a deep cleansing way of healing your soul and helping your brain work out a way to move on. Instead of your thoughts circling around and around, which can be burdening. 

Fiction writing as a hobby

Dabbling in short stories or novels in fiction writing is a huge creative outlet. Also, same as with journal writing you don’t have to show anyone your work. It could be just your piece of luxury and fun as a hobby. If you do want to share your work there are many paths to publishing, which we won’t get into today. 

How to write fiction 

I find fiction writing quite fun. You can either start just playing with one or two or more characters. Write down how they look, how they speak. What is their personality? Even thoughts on how they walk and their mannerisms. Character writing can be quite fun in itself. You just start to write what they would say and if a scenario arises, how would they handle it? 

So yes you can start with characters. Or you can start with the landscape. Is it a fantasy story so what is the fantasy location? Is it in space? Or may be it’s a time travel story? May be it’s sci-fi? Or may be it’s as simple as being framed at a local book store. Creating the landscape can be as creative or realistic as you want to make it. That is why writing fiction is fun. You are the creator. 

“Your imagination and creativity can be as limitless as you want.” 

you can even start with a scenario. A scenario is like as if something is happening. What is happening? You decide and then you decide the action around the scenario or how the people are acting and that’s how you get started.

Writing fiction you don’t have to plot an entire story from the beginning. You can literally just start with a character or scenario etc to hook yourself into writing! 

Other writers, prefer to be very structured. By writing the plot and then each chapter outline and what will be included in each chapter. Write how you want! There are no rules just tips to help you along the way! 

 Writing articles as a hobby

Article writing might be more your style. You realise you love reading and talking and may be even doing a particular topic, so why not write about it? You can write it as an article, blog or even write your own non-fiction book. 

Again, you don’t have to publish what you have written if you prefer not to. Or you could choose a niche and just have fun with it. 

Research for a particular topic can be needed, which can just be part of the fun. 

Whatever you choose to write, try to make a set time each day or week to write in your chosen style. Otherwise you might want to write your first book but then time runs away and it never gets finished. By setting a time you get to give yourself your creative outlet that you seek, through writing. 

#writing #creativewriting #writingashobby #meltoye 

 Also if you are a beginner in crocheting, you may appreciate reading my ‘The journey of crocheting for beginners’ ebook by Melanie Toye. You can purchase here: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1808619

To see all of my ebooks available for purchase click here: https://melanietoyeshobbies.blogspot.com/p/buy-my-ebooks.html

Follow me on Pinterest at: @melanietoye

Follow me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melanie-toye-a3267644?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app

Join my hobbies Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/15bFDQNKj1/?mibextid=wwXIfr

If you liked reading this post, please share it. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Crocheting my first blanket

So I decided that crocheting animals etc is pretty stressful. Not really stressful but not relaxing. A cool end result but I wanted to find something to crochet where I didn’t have to count the stitches or focus on the different type of stitches. So I decided to crochet a simple blanket.  I just wanted to use a small amount of stitches and not count them. I didn’t want to do anything fancy. But I still wanted to crochet. I believe if I could find something to stitch that I could just relax doing than it was worth it. I started googling a simply blanket planet using single crochet stitch. And I found one. It’s simple start off with the first row with a chain stitch and then turn it over and do the rest with a single crochet stitch. Brilliant. So I started crocheting a baby blanket. It didn’t work out. The sides were uneven and the blanket was all different lengths. So I googled and realised after I do a row of single crochet stitches, I have to do one chain stitch at the end before ...

I crocheted my first scarf

  If you are a subscriber to my hobbies YouTube channel @littlemissmel23, last week I posted a video on how to crochet a scarf. I couldn’t show the end result because it was already a long video, so I decided to show you on my blog. I have added the video to this blog post if you are interested in watching it for the pattern.  The final result: The final result is quite good I feel. I did a thin scarf and I ran out of pink yarn so I decided to add white. I’m quite proud of this scarf. I am going to play with the sizing and in particular the width of the scarf.  Now my kids have seen the first scarf, they are wanting me to make them one as well. They even chose the coloured yarn they want. One wants black and then white like my pink and white one pictured. And my other son wants a combination of blue white yarn.  As per the video, I plan to crochet 5-7 scarves for myself so I can wear one each day and change the scarf colour pending the outfit.  Scarf crocheting ...

Why you should scrapbook

  I have only been doing for scrapbooking for about a year but I absolutely love it. Here’s why you should take it up: Photos  So I got a new phone and lost about half of my photos and videos from last year, even though I am paying for the iCloud. It’s ok, it’s just a harsh reality of using technology. I also save my photos to a hard drive, another downfall because that could break and then all my photos will be lost. So what’s the best way to ensure photos are kept - by printing them. I really believe this. And then worst case scenario if you have a fire and lose your printed photos, you still have the photos electronically and you can start again.  I worked out that for about 12,000 photos at 10c each to be printed, it will cost about $1200. But 12,000 photos is a lot and you would have to go through the ones you actually want to print which could drop it by half and that’s now $600.  Now you don’t have to pay for it in one large hit and to be honest the printing s...