When is a writer legitimately a writer? When do others look at her and identify her as such? Is having the title, “writer,” a dream people hold fast to as small children, or is the responsibility to write thrust upon them without choice? What makes a writer, well, a writer? There have to be more connotations to the word besides the obvious, a writer writes.
Anyone can publish a book: politicians, theologians, musicians, computer experts, cartoonists. But being published doesn’t automatically convert one into the writer title. Anyone can submit to a magazine or a newspaper for publication, join Oprah’s book club, or attend a poetry reading. In fact, anyone in school has had to write a paper of some sort, and at least one term paper since high school. The question remains, however, when does a person jump the fence into writer’s territory?
Come to think of it, the people I identify as writers never boastly introduce themselves with a polite handshake and explain when you ask what they do, that they are in fact, a writer. Most writers will not even claim the title.
A true writer lives in two experiences. She lives the present through first-person eyes, while seeing the same experience from a third person view. A writer’s mind takes her outside of herself, and with practice and development, is able to experience herself as another character. In developing her writer skill, she can channel this vision into an enlightening story.
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leafless said:
I believe the title “writer” applies to people who write for a living. Casual writers can’t really claim this title.
July 16, 2008 @ 1:26 pm
Walin said:
I write when I MUST write, not when I want to. When I have to get it out or it will drive me insane. I don’t consider myself a writer, but it seems that may be part of it.
July 19, 2008 @ 7:39 pm
Jacqueline Johnson said:
I find that I’m the same way…
July 19, 2008 @ 9:11 pm