Do What Makes You Happy

Since my dad retired from his job as a garbageman—shortly after my mom died—he has watched two shows consistently: Law and Order: Criminal Intent and The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross (there’s an entire channel committed to just this show on our TVs). Sometimes, I watch them with him. Law and Order has helped to inspire a couple of my more recent stories (“I Do…I Did…” and “Neverland Lost”). The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross, on the other hand, has given me a different sort of inspiration—more of an epiphany, really.

In one episode, Bob Ross talks about how you should “do what makes you happy”. He was obviously talking about when you paint, but his words could be taken to mean about life in general as well. In this case, I have taken his words and applied them to writing.

On Vocal, we are so worried about getting Top Story, placing in the Challenges, or getting reads (if we’re Vocal+) that sometimes we forget about what is truly important in writing: expressing ourselves. The most important audience is not the readership that we are aiming for; it is us, the writers. If we are not satisfied with the work that we are producing, then it is going to show up in the writing, and our readers will not be pleased.

Take, for example, when I worked as a ghostwriter. I grew to loathe that job. It just did not make me happy. What I wrote disgusted me, in fact. While this did not show up in my writing at first, trust me, it eventually caught up to me. That, along with extenuating circumstances in my personal life and horrible pay, caused me to quit. I just could not stand what I was writing, and what I wrote was trash as a result.

However, what I write for Vocal is a very different story. Even when I write for Challenges, I write what I want to write—what makes me happy, as Bob Ross would say—and the difference is undeniable. My writing keeps improving, and I have a fun time doing it. Even if I do not place in the Challenges, I do not regret what I have written because I wrote what I wanted to write and my readers enjoy it as well.

For example, my poem “Cat and Mouse” did not place in the Don’t Turn Around Challenge. Nevertheless, I had fun taking a unique angle on the challenge that no one else was doing. The result was a poem that, while it did not win, was well-liked by my readers and, more importantly, by me. I pursued what made me happy, and while it did not prove fruitful with the judges, it did with the most important audience of all.

I know what you’re thinking: what about the sad works? The horror? Anything dark? Does that fall under the “do what makes you happy” category? Surprisingly, yes, it does. Believe it or not, when I write something sad or dark, I am still writing something that makes me happy. When I write something sad, I am releasing those emotions, venting something that has been stuck in me for a while, and that helps to lift my spirits. Similarly, when I write something dark—like horror—I am sharing my perspective on the world with the world, and that makes me happy. Even though it’s dark, it is me sharing a part of myself that people don’t normally get to see, and I get some joy out of being able to do that. That’s how I’m able to get such masterpieces as “Sinking” and “The Ghostwriter”.

Bob Ross may have been talking about painting, but what he said applies to all art: do what makes you happy. If you can’t satisfy yourself as the writer, then the reader will not be satisfied, either. Sure, there are some outliers who prove that they can do differently than that—Edgar Allan Poe comes to mind—but in general, this seems to be the case. They say no surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader. Well, no joy in the writer, no joy in the reader, either. So, go out, do what makes you happy, whether that’s creating beautiful sonnets or the goriest horror that you can imagine.