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Are you a writer?

edited January 2007 in - Reading
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  • Do you consider yourself to be a writer? Although I've had six books published, I'm still not sure I think of myself as a 'proper' writer. I don't spend much of my day writing (based on time, I could just as well consider myself a dishwasher, if you see what mean); and I certainly couldn't live on what I earn from writing. On the other hand, when I was trying to get bookshops in Brighton to stock my books, one of the assistants said he'd heard of me. So when should you regard yourself as a writer?
  • I think it's something personal to each writer.
    At first I didn't feel that, but one day someone asked me what I did, and I said 'I'm a writer,' I'd only had a couple of small things published in newsletters, and a few letters in the local paper. But I felt I was a writer.
    Have confidence Jay and say to yourself and others I'm a writer.
  • I don't know, its the same with my painting - even though I've sold quite a few over the years I still don't feel like I am an 'artist'.  Although as I am no longer working I tend to say I'm an artist and a writer as I tend to find some people look down their noses at stay-at-home mums, which shouldn't bother me - but it does!!!!
  • Absolutely. Even though I don't earn much from it, and not many people have heard of me. I can hold a pen, construct a sentence, create an image with words, hold an audience and finish the job. As far as I'm concerned that makes me a writer.

    I've referred to myself as 'a writer' since I was a teen but generally if someone asks me what I 'do' as in what I do for a living, I'll talk about my day job. People sometimes sneer if you say that you're a writer, and they'll ask what you've had published etc. But in the main I think that it's how you feel about yourself that makes you a writer, not how you are perceived by others.

    Now, if you ask someone if they're a *successful* writer, you may get a different answer!
  • or a published writer even...
  • Sorry. That last one was a follow on from josiehenley's
  • yes, or even a published writer. But 'successful' has different interpretations, doesn't it? I mean plenty of people could be published which is a measure of success, but not earn enough from it to support themselves, which would make it a 'profession'.

    I judge my successes as stories that I've finished and am happy with for myself, rather than those that have been published. But I'm aware that in order to get recognition we have to be validated by being published in whatever means.
  • I'm not a writer. I'll not be til' I win the Booker prize, neither.
  • Van Gogh only sold one painting durig his lifetime, was he not a painter?
  • Once upon a time, I would look around for what to say when people asked what I did, because I flitted from one job to another, not really knowing what to do.  Now, I say, 'I'm a proofreader and a writer,' and am proud to say both.  I've had a few letters published in WM, and articles on various websites, but even if I hadn't, I'd still think of myself as a writer, because I write.  Isn't that what we do, after all?
  • If a book with your name as the author is in bookshops and libraries, you're a writer.  If, in addition, you've had many articles/poetry published in newspapers or magazines and you are still writing for publication, you are definitely a writer.       
  • It's certainly open to interpretation so I'd suggest you call yourself a writer when you feel confident enough to do so. (Jay, you are definitely a writer.) But here are two different reasons - for and against...

    1. I'd never considered telling people I was/am but that stems from a lack of confidence. I used to write a weekly column for our local newspaper which is read by an average of 20,000 people a day. I always considered it to be a part-time thing (which it was) and told people I was an office worker but the first week my replacement was in the job, she started telling all and sundry she was a freelance journalist. I nearly fell off my writer's block! (She couldn't type and it was the first time she'd ever written anything in her life) But she said it with such confidence even I started believing her. It was what she felt and she certainly had the confidence in herself to carry it off.

    2. Apparently when you fill in an application for a passport now (in this country, at least) they ask you your occupation. Some people have several jobs - out of work actors fall into this category, too - but the legal answer they expect is the occupation that gives you the majority of your yearly income.

    Like I said, it's a matter of interpretation so do you go the 'legal' way or the 'feeling' way? Confidence is the key.
  • Only death can stop me being a writer, and even then I'll give it a bloody good try.
  • Tricky -- I think I'm an "aspiring writer"! I've written a novel (two if you count a very poor attempt aged 15...), a handful of short stories, a LOT of essays at Uni, and so on. I've never had anything published in a paying market, though -- the only money I've made from writing was an essay prize at Uni.
  • I think we may have lost sight of our definitions here, anyone who writes is a writer whatever happens to the product. The dictionry definition is a professional scribe or clerk.now what about an author?  all department in our laboratories where I worked  had one or two "Technical Authors assigned to them whose task was to convert the designers operting instrctions into recgnisable English---hardly creative. Now what about prodcers of non fiction work? The dictionary would b quite hapy the write they are paid but??????????
  • You had a drink, mate?
  • No Neil I was trying to point out that there are viws on this and they depend on individual standpoints. Take the case of someone working on a book for two years, it is not yet fiinshed and no one knows whether it will be a blockbuster or waste paper. During that time surely we have a writer. We could I suppose have aspiring writers, struggling writers, failed writers ad infinitum but surely we are all writers just in dfferent staes of development
  • agree with that one, Crazy H. A writer is a writer, whatever prefix is given.
  • Too true, CH. I like your point of view.
  • Sorry, Craze. It wasn't so much what you said as the way you said it - language all over the place,with the final string of????? suggesting a man falling off his stool! And it was, after all, 12.30am. Cheers. Blowing several gales here,
  • Another thread reminded me of this one.
  • I like what Crazy Horse said about Van Gogh selling only one painting.  I've only sold one short story (and won 2 prizes) so that makes me a writer, I suppose.
  • For me it was when someone thought my writing was good enough to send me a cheque. From that day on I was a writer and it also gave me the confidence to put myself out there as a writer rather than someone who thought she might be but wasn't quite sure if she was good enough...that and actually seeing my name in print.
  • I would never put "writer" as occupation on a form, but then, at the moment I've got no idea what I would put there because I earn very little from anything I do at the moment.  I say, when it comes up which it doesn't much, what I do rather what I am. So  I say I write for children and I work with young children Either of those are usually enough for people to lose interest!  Writing is different though.  You have a special desire to do it - it's not like picking a job to do.  You pick a job aswell, but you're also a writer. (Do you think my brain is working better today, Jay?  Let me know if it's not).
  • Seems fine to me, Daisy.
  • I'm a writer - but it doesdepend on the individual
  • What do you call someone who rides a bike? A cyclist. And that's even if he's not riding in the Tour de France. So I call someone who writes a writer. To me it's the doing it that counts.
  • If you put pen to paper your're a writer. Simple as.
  • Anyone else wish to comment?
  • I'd like to say I was a writer - but perhaps an aspiring one?
  • I'm a lazy writer at the moment!
  • There's a piece in our local 'literary newspaper' by someone described as a 'skipper - poet' ie he sails boats and writes. It's good to see both given equal value. We should be proud of both our writing and our day-jobs.
  • This question came up regularly during the times I conducted writing classes or workshops. So, one of the first words the class wrote down was 'I am a writer.' Surprisingly, many of them felt inhibited about believing in themselves. Don't worry about others, belive you are a writer and so be it.
  • Jay, I think this is a matter of viewpoint. Having read all the above it seems that it if you write you must surely be a writer. However, other people would more likely view a writer as someone who has published something they could read.
    If asked what I do I give my day job but mention that I also write. As I have had a number of articles published, if they ask what I have written I can cite a couple of publications they are likely to have heard of. Until I had something published I would not describe myself to others as a writer, even though I considered this to be the case.
  • Maybe Talkback should have a compulsary introduction post for all new members: 'Hello, my name's XXX and I'm a writer.' Like self help groups do.

    Followed a few weeks later by: My name is XXX and I'm a Talkback addict...
  • Two years ago I gave up a successful carrer to be 'a writer'. I went through a massive crisis over who I was and what I did when I got started. One day it dawned on me when I had introduced myself before I had never said I as 'a successful finance director' or 'a good ....,' I simply said what I did. Now I spend my time writing, whether I have achieved the success I want yet or not, I am a writer. I earn peanuts compared to my old salary but I don't care, I love it and I wouldn't go back for anything (and I have been offered good jobs in the meantime). Of course, I do still say one day I am going to be succesful but that's another story.
  • Mutley, you are so right.  I have never thought of it that way.

    I am an accountant, but never introduce myself as a successful accountant.

    I am a writer.  I AM A WRITER!
  • I don't go along with this business of solemnly writing down 'I am a writer', or shouting the same words across the room at some ridiculous writing class. To paraphrase what one of the staff said during a spat with the chef in the TV programme about the Adelphi Hotel, Liverpool a few years ago ("Just cook will yer!".), my advice would be: "Just write will yer!".
  • Neil
    that is a fair point but most people have times when they stop and say 'who am I?'. Many people define their place in the world by their children or their job, sadly some do it by status or material position. I am very happy to define myself as a writer and every so often when I get little time to write, it feels like I am sinking in a bowl of treacle and will never get back out. As long as I am producing good writing, even if I a am not yet getting it all published I can stand on the rim of the bowl and look down on the treacle. ( I may have gone off topic with th treacle but hopefully someome out there will understand what I mean.)
  • I didn't consider myself a writer until the day I signed my first publishing contract. I wouldn't dream of calling myself a writer if I'd never been published by a commercial publisher. I don't think anyone can call themselves a real writer until a publisher tells them that their work is good enough to be published. Writing is a profession like any other.
  • The trouble with writing is that it is also an art - like music and painting - and people do it because they are driven to create. They may or may not aspire to become rich, famous or published but they still have a need to express themselves.

    I suppose there will always be a dividing line between a published writer and a writer who hasn't been published
  • Taking publication as a measure is not a precise science. Where do you rank self publication? What about websites that take your content and pay you nothing? (magazines likewise). You might take payment for your writing as a measurement but that would preclude all the brilliant work done for the love of it and in other peoples lives, precludes charitable work and the important role many people make in the home. I think there is a danger of become 'writing snobs' and finding a way to look down on others who have not yet achieved as much. By your measure of publication, Jordan could now consider herself a writer as could many other celebrities, it doesn't mean what they write is good.
  • Taking publication as a measure is not a precise science. Where do you rank self publication? What about websites that take your content and pay you nothing? (magazines likewise). You might take payment for your writing as a measurement but that would preclude all the brilliant work done for the love of it and in other peoples lives, precludes charitable work and the important role many people make in the home. I think there is a danger of become 'writing snobs' and finding a way to look down on others who have not yet achieved as much. By your measure of publication, Jordan could now consider herself a writer as could many other celebrities, it doesn't mean what they write is good.
  • sorry for posting twice the page crashed!
  • No need to apologise, Mutley. It drives your message home. Well said!
  • Even though I have just the one book (which I self published) and work part time elsewhere, I still consider myself to be a writer first and foremost. It is what I always wanted to do - my vocation if you like, although I didn't realise that until I actually started to write ! I have had one or two articles published as well, mostly on the internet, but in at least one magazine and edit the local newsletter as well, writing and researching a fair amount of what goes in there each month, so I think that more than qualifies me to claim to be a writer.

    It is great though when you ring book shops and they have heard of you - it has happened to me a couple of times now. When I spoke to one of the Scottish Waterstones yesterday in fact, the Manager told me he had just been reading about me in Writers News just before I rang ! The article did its job then as I now have another stockist !

    I think most of us though are a long way from making a full time living from our writing - but as I said on my blog site, we can no more stop writing than we can stop breathing - it is who we are, the reason we are alive. That to me is the mark of a true writer. 
  • Mutley - you asked where self-publishing should be ranked, in terms of people calling themselves a legitimate writer. Given that anyone can self-publish, I wouldn't rank that anywhere. Websites and magazines that take work without paying? Well, those are desperate for any material they can get, so therefore getting into one of those doesn't necessarily make you a 'writer', either.
    I have no idea who Jordan is, but I imagine you're referring to celebrity books. Here, the answer is simply that the bottom line for all of this is that publishers want, and need, to sell books. Writing is a business. If a million muggles want to buy the crappy memoirs of a football hero or whatever, that makes money. They're also generally quite happy to admit the thing was ghost-written anyway. So whoever actually wrote it is a proper writer - someone who knew how to write it in such a way that it appealed to the buying public. That's a professional gig for that writer. In this way, it's thanks to that celeb that a writer was able to get work. Don't knock it - become part of it (if you have what it takes)!

    Writing is a serious profession. That's why I didn't consider myself a writer until the day I signed a proper contract. Look at it this way. Someone wants to be a vet, and has always dreamed of it. They get a dog, and clip its nails, give it a worming tablet. So are they a vet now? No, not until they have the proper qualification and the RCVS consider them to be worth the designation. Until that day, they are a wannabee vet, or an amateur vet, or really just a pet lover. If they were to go to a party and someone asked them 'what do you do?', and they replied 'I'm a vet', that would be a lie. In fact it could be a serious delusion, if they really believed it.

    There is no value judgement here. If you want to be a writer, then strive towards it. It's far too easy just to declare oneself a writer, just because it's an appealing idea. You have to earn it.
  • What is your book about, Candy? Can I check it out on Amazon or somewhere? Thanks.
  • Sorry Candy, but I have to disagree. I think your vet analogy is misleading. You can't compare writing to a profession where you are either qualified to practise or not. If the only qualification for becoming a writer is to sign a contract you do a disservice to a large number of people. Art in any form isn't like that, is it?

    I've never signed a contract but the last time I read one of my stories to large group of children I was immediately asked, 'Who wrote that?' Just because it was read from a printed A4 sheet and not a book (which cannot be self published) doesn't make me any less of a writer. On the same note, am I only going to become a painter when I sell a painting via a gallery when several of my canvasses hang in friend's homes? Sorry, but I see things very differently. 
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