There are a lot of questions you have probably asked about the results of your writing. Here are a few of them:

Will it make my life better?

Will it make me money?

Will it increase my status?

Will it grow the size of my audience?

Will it get me closer to a publishing deal?

Will it give me material I can use elsewhere?

Those are all good and valid questions to ask about your writing. Here is another important one to consider:

Will it make me happy?

That doesn’t mean writing is only a self-centered pursuit. If happiness is the only measurement we use to determine the value of an activity, our lives will always be focused inward.

That being said, happiness is a good indicator of whether you’re doing the right kind of work in the first place. Ernest Hemingway certainly felt this way about writing. He said, “Writing is something that you can never do as well as it can be done. It is a perpetual challenge and it is more difficult than anything else that I have ever done—so I do it. And it makes me happy when I do it well.”

Note here that Hemingway put a condition upon the happiness that writing brings into his life. He said, “… when I do it well.”

Can writing make you happy? Yes, of course. But happiness that truly lasts is not the result of external measurements. Money, the size of your audience, or a publishing contract will not bring lasting happiness.

Instead, happiness in your writing will only come when you have done the job well… when you have put the time, effort, and excellence into the work.

External rewards are unpredictable and depend on the judgments or actions of other people. Internal happiness is something you can enjoy every single day, no matter what other people do.