The Fun Stuff

Do you guys ever write anything just for the fun of it?

I mean, obviously my full-length novel projects are fun. I enjoy writing them (except when they drive me crazy) - why would I do it otherwise? There's nothing like sitting down to write after a bad day - the soft clack of my keyboard and the constant march of letters across a blank page is soothing. It reminds me that there is, in fact, something that I am meant to be doing with my life, and it's this. It's writing. I've got stories to tell and I'm meant to tell them.

But aside from that - I think there are very few projects I've started just for the sheer fun of it. I've written for myself and I've written for school, and those things have been fun, sometimes - but not in the "ah, why the heck not, let's just see what happens" kind of a way. Those projects, even in their most fun moments, have always had a tinge of SERIOUS BUSINESS to them.

Right now, I'm taking a break on The Long Road Home before diving into some edits, and I'm working on, would you believe it, a one-act play.

Because, well - why the heck not?

And, well, because my actress roommate/best friend is bored and theatre deprived. And because I went to a history convention for Phi Alpha Theta which involved spending two hours-ish in the car with my professors, and after recounting that story to everyone I'd always say "there really should be a sitcom called Road Trips With Professors" and they'd say "yeah, you should write it!"

So I am. And it's been fun - it's going to be the world's most stage-direction-less play, because I'm enjoying just focusing on the dialogue. I am hoping that it's halfway decent, because I am going to show it to Lisa at some point, but for the most part I'm just killing some time, letting myself focus on other things before going in for edits, and simply enjoying myself.

What about you, fair readers? Do you ever write little projects just because it's fun, or are you all-novels-all-the-time?