Or does writing something only make you happy? Joy is often mistaken for happiness. Joy from writing something and being happy about it seems interchangeable.

Recently, I listened to a podcast about finding joy in times of chaos. Like Cancer. Yeah. The Big C. But I thought about my life as a writer/author and realized that it was applicable to me, in another and very different way.

It may be for you, too. Do you write happily or joyfully?

Only you can say. But I am here today to try to give another perspective on the difference between writing happily and writing joyfully. And yes, there is a difference!

So, let’s look at the difference.

Happiness is that feeling that you have when you get to go away for a week or two and see a place you haven’t been to before. The feeling is fleeting, however, because as soon as you get back to your work place or your desk and that huge pile of papers hits you, well, you don’t feel happiness anymore.

Joy is the feeling that you have that brings tears. Joy is the only emotion we have that will make us cry, except pain. Pain is the other one. So we could even say that joy and pain are sisters. They both make us cry. We embrace joy but shy away from pain. For good reasons. I am not looking forward to having surgery, but boy am I joyful that I am getting rid of cancer!

So, when you write, if it gives you joy, if it is something that you long to do, and would do whether you made a dime from it or not, then you are on a journey when you write to fulfill yourself.

Maybe if you only write because you are happy to tell stories, but when you leave the writing chair, you may be gone for a year or two before coming back to it, then you are on a different journey.

Neither is bad. Neither is less of a thing. They are just different.

I wrote recently about writing from a place of joy. You can see that post here. https://www.kimsmithauthor.com/write-from-a-place-of-joy/

I am not sure when I will post again. I have surgery next week, and family will be here and I intend to love on them and spend time with them as much as possible. But believe me when I say that I am writing. I am writing as if my life depended on it. Yes, they are journals, but hey, that’s still writing yall. Call it my form of memoir.

Have a great day!