Doing What You Love

"I write for myself" is a common phrase I hear among authors and bloggers. It sounds noble, somehow uncorrupted by the petty, external need for gratification. "I write for myself" makes it sound like it's all about personal growth. It's often accompanied by the quote, "Love what you do and do what you love." I don't buy it. I write for an audience. In the case of Wendell the World's Worst Wizard, the audience was three kids. I wanted them to see the drawings and hear the story and fall in love with the world that Christy and I had created. I wrote it for them. Was I doing what I loved the whole time? Not really. I hate editing and revising. I don't particularly enjoy writing action sequences. I don't like admitting when a part of the story sucks and needs to be redone. If I was "loving what I do" or "writing for myself" I'd be taking a totally different route. Right now, I'm working on a tiny story. It's not the kind of story I would want to read. It has pirates and wizards and pixies. However, I'm already getting excited about how my kids will react to it. I think the fact that I have them in mind will help the book become more interesting. So, it has me thinking about teaching. I hear the phrase "do what you love" and often it fits into the same mindset of "I write for myself." I know this is a bit of a stretch, but here's my thinking: I don't teach because it's a blast day in and day out. I don't teach for myself. I don't teach, because I am "doing what I love."  If I did, we would do lecture and discussion and I probably would't have much group work. We'd start with whatever I was interested in and run with that. Kids would hate it, but I'd be doing what I love. I think the advice to "do what you love" and "write for yourself" sound noble, but their actually pretty steeped in self-absorption. Kids don't need teachers who are "doing what they love." They need teachers who will do things that they don't love, because they are motivated by love for their students.