Mar 15 2007
I’m A Writer - Are You?
I’m a writer.
It took me a while to figure it out but I am a writer.
It feels good to acknowledge it and give it validity.
When I was a child I was always writing short stories and drawing comic books and re-telling Greek mythology. Everyone thought I’d be a writer.
Everyone thought I was pretty good. Then I went to high school and if anything will smack you down, it’s high school. That’s where you learn that there is always someone better than you. Not many teenagers are self-accepting, brimming with self-esteem and know their purpose in life. Heck, not many adults are so lucky.
I’ve made several attempts to write. In my early 20s I took a creative writing course. That was hard. I was writing fiction, self-conscious fiction, and the writing was so difficult I told myself that I was no good and I should give up any dreams of writing. I gave up writing with a sense of relief.
That relief lasted for over a decade but throughout that time was a niggling. I sensed that I was not being true to myself. A few years ago I told myself that I should give writing another shot and I started to read several books on writing to get me motivated. Every book said that you should write. Every day. I couldn’t write every day. My own writing bored me. Once again, I gave up on writing.
My problem was that I had defined writing as writing fiction. Having a rich fantasy life does not necessarily mean you’ll write good fiction.
The authors of those writing books all wrote about how they were driven to write. They had to. I didn’t think I had this drive. I thought that all I had was the desire to become a writer and not a true desire to write.
The authors were right. If you’re a writer somehow the writing must come out of you. In my case, I was writing a lot of emails. Long emails. Long descriptive emails. People began to tell me that they enjoyed my emails and hey, had I ever considered writing?
It’s been a long journey and I’ve finally found my writing. I call myself a writer. I am a writer.
You may ask, “Does having a blog make you a writer?”
Some people don’t think so. I read this comment while searching for answers to the question, “Am I a writer?”
“I blog so I can get whatever is eating me out in the open and move on. Also it lets others share in your experiences. I don’t think having a blog makes you a writer. Have you seen these people’s grammar and spelling? Good God! Having something printed or published for the helpfulness, entertainment, or service of others is being a writer.”
I don’t think writing is all about grammar and spelling. I think good spelling makes something easier to read and knowing good grammar makes for better writing. There are all types of writing and for me writing is about sharing a feeling or moment with the written word. When I write, I want to take my reader somewhere.
I don’t think that having a blog makes a person a writer. I think a person is a writer first and having a blog is only the medium. I think that the better blogs are written by writers. Like art, people know good writing when they see it. They may not like it but they recognize it.
I like this advice I found at Successful Blog: “Don’t wait for permission to be a writer.”
She continues with:
How do I know I’m a writer?
Try as I might to avoid it, I simply must write.
I’m a writer. Are you?