What is classed as a 'writer'? Is it
being published or famous? Is it to commit your life to the craft even if
nothing comes of it? Or is it the need to put the creativity that runs riot
inside you down on to paper?
The saying ‘everyone has a book in
them’ comes to mind, along with the retort, ‘but they are not all worth being
read!’ So maybe to be a 'writer' you need a reader: to be writing for someone
other than yourself.
Even though I write I have yet to
refer to myself as a ‘writer’ but I dream of being an author (by this I mean to
be published). I think that I am hesitant to do so out of the fear of being
asked if I have written anything someone might have read, the answer of course
being no. This implies that society has connected the label of ‘writer’ to
being published.
I think to be a 'writer' you need to
capture your reader. To create a story that has a depth but to also understand
that you won’t get it right first time, that it’s an ongoing process in which
you are left wanting to give up and where you change your mind. That you have
the understanding that on some level the story it’s self has control.
Maybe to be a writer you simply need
to believe that you are one, whether it’s as a hobby or a career.
You raise a very interesting distinction between a writer and an author, and while they are synonymous, it's curious that we feel more comfortable admitting to one than other. I agree that I think this distinction comes from an outside view, that authors are seen to be more respectable: writing is their job and they earn a living from it. To be an author you must be published, which also seems to add a certain value to your work: if you've been published what you write must be good, mustn't it? Whereas, any old fool you be a writer, couldn't they? By that thought, I suppose anyone could be a writer, it just depends if they're good enough and passionate enough to become an author.
ReplyDeleteAny one can write, and everone should write- it's good for the soul! But there is a big difference between writing for pleasure, and writing for the status or the money.
ReplyDeleteI like how although you do a course in writing, you're yet to define yourself as a 'writer'. We're told from the minute we join this class that we are 'writers', but that's only in the eyes of those who already are writers and have the proof!
ReplyDeleteAnd I love how you end this, belief in yourself to me, is one of the most important things you can have as a writer. There are those who wrote as a hobby and turned it into a career, which I guess is what we're all striving for, to turn something we love into something we do for the rest of our lives.
What great comments - a sign of a thought provoking post. How I ended up where I am today is a long story (full of rewrites and brutal editing...) but it started when I read a book called No More Blue Mondays back in 2003. It was packed full of self-help tropes and cliches but included the comment, 'To be happy you have to make your hobby your job.' Abi's comment reminded me of this. It is possible.
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