What is a Writer?
I spend a lot of my time thinking. That’s the mark of a writer, no doubt, though it’s not ours alone (my former husband, a software developer, spends a great deal of his working time stretched out on a couch staring at the ceiling). And one of the things I think about is what makes a real writer. Visual artists, it seems, are forever discussing the nature of art. We writers are more ego-obsessed: we argue about the nature of writers. Who gets to call themselves a writer? What are the criteria? I was thinking about it again today when I read one of my writer’s associations newsletters and saw a description of a writer who sits at her computer and writes … well, whatever it is that she writes. And I immediately felt, oh, I wish I could do that.
I wish I were a real writer.
What nonsense! The truth is, I am a real writer. I have novels and nonfiction books, short stories and articles, poetry and produced plays to my credit. Do they pay all my bills? No; but the reality is that I have in fact fashioned a life around writing. I make my living writing copy: website copy, business copy, press releases and white papers and business articles. It doesn’t mean that I’m always writing what I want to be writing … but I’m always writing.
What makes us real? What criteria do we use to define ourselves? It’s worth spending a little time thinking about it. And then you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!
Posted in About Writing, Creativity, Words on March 15th, 2010