Thursday
Nov012012
You Are a Writer: Stop Resisting, Own Your Work, and Invest In Your Craft
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Do you fill notebooks? Do you write a blog? Do you write short stories, books, poems, essays, plays, screenplays, or copy? You are a writer.
As I said on Twitter:
There is no objective scale of quality by which to measure your writing and legitimate your status as a capital-W Writer. A writer might write absolute shite for seven months and then bust out a short story that brings humanity to its veritable knees. During that seven months of shite? They were still a writer.
If being paid for your writing is what makes you a writer, the bar is too low. My first paid gig had me writing about wheat quality, and, let me tell you. that's not my birthplace.
As with paid writing, if being physically published in a newspaper, magazine, or book is what makes you a writer, we need a new system. We cannot rely on an industry to be the arbiter of what is considered real writing and who is a real writer that prints books by celebrities most noted for being drunk and unintelligible.
Use the fact that there are a lot of terrible writers out there calling themselves writers as a catalyst to improve both your craft and what it means to be a one. It is unjust to let poor examples lead the herd.
You can be a writer regardless of your level of education. People regularly graduate from colleges and universities with terrible writing skills. Some people just don't have it, and some people do, whether the diploma says so or not.
You might hate nearly everything you write down. So what? Who are you to judge? Writers don't love every last thing that dribbles through their keyboard. They do the work and keep going.
That real writers must love writing is a horrible piece of misinformation. Forget you ever laid ears on it. Some writers do love the act of writing, some pursue it as a means to an end, and others, like me, have a love/hate relationship with it. Language is a complex tool that doesn't always behave itself, so it's okay to be a writer that struggles with his or her affection for both the craft and the tools.
If it makes you feel too vulnerable to introduce yourself as a writer, be more specific with how you describe what you do. People don't always know what you mean when you say "writer". I'm a writer, and I don't always know what you mean when you do that. Tell people that you are a novelist or a copywriter or, god forbid, a blogger. They will better understand what you do, and you will come across as the more purposeful and accomplished writer that you are.
Are you reticent to call yourself a writer? It might be because taking ownership of your creative work means owning both its successes and its failures, its strengths and its shortcomings. If this is the case, stop wasting your time in the shallow end. You won't become a better swimmer in the kiddie pool. Dive in.
Again, as we began: do you fill notebooks? Do you write a blog? Do you write short stories, books, poems, essays, plays, screenplays, or copy? You are a writer. You are a writer.
You are a writer:
As I said on Twitter:
The word describes what you do, not how well you do it or whether or not you get paid for doing it.Don't put too much weight on the word "writer".
You don't have to be good at it to be one.
You just have to do it.
There is no objective scale of quality by which to measure your writing and legitimate your status as a capital-W Writer. A writer might write absolute shite for seven months and then bust out a short story that brings humanity to its veritable knees. During that seven months of shite? They were still a writer.
If being paid for your writing is what makes you a writer, the bar is too low. My first paid gig had me writing about wheat quality, and, let me tell you. that's not my birthplace.
As with paid writing, if being physically published in a newspaper, magazine, or book is what makes you a writer, we need a new system. We cannot rely on an industry to be the arbiter of what is considered real writing and who is a real writer that prints books by celebrities most noted for being drunk and unintelligible.
Use the fact that there are a lot of terrible writers out there calling themselves writers as a catalyst to improve both your craft and what it means to be a one. It is unjust to let poor examples lead the herd.
You can be a writer regardless of your level of education. People regularly graduate from colleges and universities with terrible writing skills. Some people just don't have it, and some people do, whether the diploma says so or not.
You might hate nearly everything you write down. So what? Who are you to judge? Writers don't love every last thing that dribbles through their keyboard. They do the work and keep going.
That real writers must love writing is a horrible piece of misinformation. Forget you ever laid ears on it. Some writers do love the act of writing, some pursue it as a means to an end, and others, like me, have a love/hate relationship with it. Language is a complex tool that doesn't always behave itself, so it's okay to be a writer that struggles with his or her affection for both the craft and the tools.
If it makes you feel too vulnerable to introduce yourself as a writer, be more specific with how you describe what you do. People don't always know what you mean when you say "writer". I'm a writer, and I don't always know what you mean when you do that. Tell people that you are a novelist or a copywriter or, god forbid, a blogger. They will better understand what you do, and you will come across as the more purposeful and accomplished writer that you are.
Are you reticent to call yourself a writer? It might be because taking ownership of your creative work means owning both its successes and its failures, its strengths and its shortcomings. If this is the case, stop wasting your time in the shallow end. You won't become a better swimmer in the kiddie pool. Dive in.
Again, as we began: do you fill notebooks? Do you write a blog? Do you write short stories, books, poems, essays, plays, screenplays, or copy? You are a writer. You are a writer.
You are a writer:
stop resisting, own your work, and invest in your craft.
categorized in lists, writing and blogging and tagged in lists, writers, writing
lists, writing and blogging and tagged in lists, writers, writing 
Reader Comments (20)
This is fantastic. Thanks for the encouragement!
Have I told you lately that I love you? (I think I have, but wanted it on public record.)
I love that in my industry (reality tv) we writers are called producers. I like the blue collar connotation of the word "producer." I produce words.
I caught the tail end of that stream earlier today and I nodded agreement with your response then. This post is everything I've been saying to myself for the past six months (in the hopes that it would sink in). I'm a writer. Good or bad, it's what I do and now it's up to me to work on it.
I admit that it's still difficult to verbalize it though.
When I got my business cards printed up for conferences, I put Freelance Writer as my profession.
Occasionally, I feel a bit insecure about the claim, but then I think about it.
Do I write? Yes.
Do I have an employer dictating what I write? No.
I think the term applies.
Oh Elan, this is exactly my struggle. My self-doubt never lets me adopt the title "writer" even though I write creatively, I blog, and I fill up my journals. For some reason, I feel that the only reason I can assume this title, is if I'm officially published....like I wasn't a 'teacher' until I finished university and got that Ed. degree.
Yet, I do try my little heart out and I'm investing in the craft everyday, even though it's not how I 'earn my keep'.
Thanks for this. I will be printing it out and putting it in my dream journal. :)
I actually had a bit of a rant on FB about this article. Here is said rant:
Henry Rollins once said, "I'm not a writer, I write".
As I began to read this article, I instantly took issue with it. I do not agree that if you write, you are a writer. To call yourself one is just puffing up your own sails with hot air, seemingly stemming from an insecurity of wanting to carry around the label as something more than you are. You could write 50,000 pages of nonsense, but that does not mean you are a writer.
I am a Warehouse Supervisor, who writes. And I am proud to be a Warehouse supervisor.
“But you wrote The List?”, people will say. Yes I am the writer of *that* graphic novel. I also hold high ranking belts in various martial arts, but a martial artist I am not. I practice the martial arts. Well, *practised*. I’m too old and frail for that shit. ;)
The definition of what you are: it's what you do that pays the bills.
At a stretch, I could call myself a pro-am writer. I make money from it, but it is not my primary income.
If you are good skier, but work full time as carpenter, you are a carpenter... who skis. If you get some sponsorship, you can be called a pro-am skier, but until it is the sole means of your finances, you are not a skier.
So, when, and only when, you can sustain yourself by thing you do, you are that thing
I'm not a writer. I write.
Paul Bedford, we differ greatly on two points.
The first point where we differ is your comparison of writing with paid careers or practices that have specific tests to mark ability. Writing is not comparable to either of these, because it is not a practice that, as a whole and across all fields that it touches, can be adjudicated by degrees. It is also not a profession in all cases, and not all writers are professionally so by everyone's measure.
It is more comparable in a lot of ways to painting or crafting or sculpting. A painter or a crafter or a sculptor is such without having to pass some strict guidelines that objectively measure their skill. There are professional painters, but there are also painters who don't sell it but do so as their most passionate pursuit.
It is possible for someone to be both a painter and a bank teller, for instance, only get paid for one, and be terrible at both.
The second major point we differ on is your statement that "The definition of what you are: it's what you do that pays the bills." That is an incredibly biased statement, and it's just not so everywhere. I had a teacher from France who told us that this was a particularly North American idea at the time (this was back in 1991). If he went back home and asked a person what they were, that person would tell you what they most loved to do. If they were a banker and that was their passion, they would say banker, but if they were a banker whose passion was skiing, they would say skier whether that was where they made their money or not.
We'll have to agree to disagree.
"Hi, my name is Sarah and I am a writer. I'm a blogger, a freelancer, and a corporate communications writer."
Well I feel much better now. ;P Thank you for the lovely post - beautiful encouragement, and beautiful writing. :)
Yes! Halloween marked the 1 year anniversary of my blog. Since then, I have been paid for writing; meagerly, but paid none-the-less. I call myself a writer. I wish more people would make declarations of who they are (or aspire to be). I have learned that by saying, I start to believe it, and when you believe... well that's where the magic happens.
I respectfully disagree with almost all of this, but 1) that's ok, and 2) I agree with you on something that only a writer will truly get anyway, and that's that it sometimes absolutely sucks to write.
Plus, in the end, call yourself whatever you want; calling yourself something doesn't make it so, or I would be tall, rich and gorgeous.
As always, you are brilliant.
The biggest hurdle is just that.
But then I thought, why can't I say "writer."
People who run say "runner" and no one pays them.
Why do I think I have to get paid first before I can say "writer."
I have spent hours writing, more than I've done anything else in my life:HOURS. Since I was 4 years old.
I write. A lot.
So, let's just say it.
But, still .... ''wr wri wwwrrrrrrr ....''
I would also have to disagree with Paul, but only because I wear many hats in my life. I am simultaneously a mother, a wife, a college student, a writer, and a struggling optimist. None of those titles pays, but that doesn't diminish my passion for doing each one well. I see his point, but maybe this is where the optimist is me wins this round by disagreeing.
Schmutzie, with many friends of mine taking on NaNoWriMo this month, I posted your blog post for encouragement. You've certainly encouraged me, not just this time.
My education tells me anecdotal evidence is false so take this with a grain of salt but my observation is that on the internet, all the worst writers have the most education. At least when it comes to blogging. Man, academics write terrible blogs. Some of the best writers I've read did not finish college. (But still read a lot--which is the education you need to be a great writer.) Mark Twain had almost no formal education.
It surprises me that some lawyers are such good fiction writers. Most lawyers are horrid writers. Too much grad school can ruin writing because it teaches you to write for a particular audience or particular task and often people aren't versatile enough to move from academic or law or professional style to a readable style.
So that's a hurdle to overcome--too much education.
I rarely comment (but often read), and just had to chime in: THANK YOU for this. Is it so hard to own up to being a writer, such great pressure (yes, where are you published, aka, are you making $, because where = worth). So from someone safely swimming in the shallow end, I'm preparing for a big dive. When this thing called "kindergarten" gives me "time."
Love this. All of it. #thatisall
I love this post - I've been telling myself I'm not a writer for ever, even though I write every single day. It took a writing coach to tell me to start thinking of myself as someone who is a writer, not just someone who writers. And then, voila, I find this site and I feel in love. Thanks. :)
Sometimes it's just easier if someone is willing to say it for you.
I love this so very much. It took a long time for me to embrace the "writer" word, but once I did, it really did free me.