How is freedom, along with enjoyment achieved? For me it is in the act of writing.
Like anyone in this day and age, I deal with alot of pressures and responsibilities. It's not a bad thing and I enjoy seeing how God gets me through each day and how everything comes together.
There are times though that I just want a chance to unwind and rest. In my younger days I achieved this in the form of reading whatever I could get my hands on multiple times. However, as I began writing I found a new and even better form of relaxation for me. Because, in writing, I not only got to travel to distant places and times long past, but I got to create places, people and their lives.
If I wanted an adventure, I would create one. It could be more realistic or even a fantasy that took place in a world that was nonexistent except for in the regions of my mind. Or if I wanted a mystery, which was usually the case, I would start weaving it. To me, creating a mystery is like a tapestry, you put each thread in place, carefully, methodically. If one thread doesn't suit the tapestry as a whole, pull it out and try again.
And creating the people within the stories, how they look, their personalities, their strengths and weaknesses, it's an amazing feeling. With character creation, at least in my experience, the characters change and grow as I write their stories. I can look back over what I've written in 15 years and see who the characters were and who they have become. They aren't real people but, in my mind, they are almost tangible and I can usually tell what will happen with them next.
To those who have never written, some of what I've said might sound a bit strange. But to those who have, they understand me. Writing is a form of freedom that anyone can indulge in. It harms no one and who knows where trying something like this will lead.
Writing is only work if you make it that. But don't look at writing as something you have to try or force yourself to do. Write for the joy of doing it and I promise, it'll be an experience you'll never want to end.