So You Think You're a Writer; or, You're a Writer When...

I am a writer.

It says so on my blogger profile, updated mere days ago to reflect that fact, among others. I have been writing on and off for as long as I can remember. Yet as someone who has been writing pretty much her whole life, someone who has been praised for poems and continually received good marks for the prose she's produced, I still struggle to think of and call myself a writer.

I took part in a March mini-NaNoWriMo hosted by Laini along with other wonderful women and wrote 56,203 words, 1,667 words daily. I only told one of my three housemates and that was under unusual circumstances, otherwise I'm convinced I wouldn't have told her at all. I have only briefly mentioned it on the phone to my mother. The reason I have kept quiet about it is because inevitably people want to ask questions. Questions they won't like the answers to. 'What are you writing? What's it about? Can I read it?'. They don't want to hear that you are writing a novel but you're making it up as you go along, you won't know what it's really about until you've finished and it wasn't written to be read, at least not in its current form. None of that tells them that you're serious. They want a plot summary, character names, themes, emotions. They want you to make them laugh and cry when you read them your perfect prose. Or else they want to think that you're just screwing around, really, the way you (I) say you're doodling to let someone know that you're aware you're no Da Vinci. If you say you're a writer, writing a novel, and then admit that you don't know what you're writing about, well, to them you might just as well admit that you're a fraud, you're not a 'real writer', whatever that means. So I know why I have issues calling myself a writer, because other people, non-writers, don't know what it means to be a writer. They come to you with this predetermined notion of what a writer/novelist/poet looks like and when you claim to be one and they can't place you, it confuses them. So they stick with what they think they know and dismiss your claim entirely. I don't call myself a writer because I don't fit into the writer slot. I'm a circle that people keep trying to fit into a square box.

To overcome the struggle with the title of writer Rebecca suggests, among other things, that you call your writing work and yourself a writer.

Saying you're a writer can sometimes have the connotation of being 'one of those writers' who is always working on this never seen project that nothing ever comes of. You get the look and the nod and the smile, you can visibily see them thinking 'oh she's that kind of writer, unpublished, probably just rewrites the same first sentence over and over and says she's writing a novel'. They're relieved they can finally place you. Rebecca suggests you call your writing your work and quotes Louise De Salvo saying that you should name it by what it is, it's '[y]our life's work'. More than that though, more than the legitimacy issue ("I'm not just typing/surfing the internet/writing, I'm working, this is a real task") there's also the mindframe that comes with it. When you think of writing as legitimate work you make time for it. You wouldn't walk into an accountant's office and start talking about your day, you wouldn't enter a chef's kitchen and ask for a shopping list (unless you worked there, I guess). Similarly, if you're working - even if you're 'just' working on writing - you shouldn't tolerate the same. You may be working with your laptop on your dining room table or sitting with a notepad on the couch but you are working. Thinking of your writing as work means that you don't tolerate spouses coming to ask you to do a chore or children begging for food (okay maybe you let that one slide) or your friends rocking up to your place to chat because you're not really 'doing anything'. Make it clear that your writing time is your work time when you are not to be disturbed, you are officially off the radar. Unplug the landline, put your mobile on silent, if you have a door then close it, just make clear demarcations - this is your time to do your writing, which is your work. If friends didn't understand why you couldn't listen to them moan about their job while you write, then make them understand why you won't allow them to disrupt your work. Make working hours, choose a regular time of the day when you consciously sit down to write, away from distractions, and tell people.

So say you're really working now. Does that make you a writer? I'm a writer. I write every morning (even if I've only been doing this for a month- a 31 day month, and we're 2 days into a whole new month, if you want to be technical). I write therefore I am. When people hear that you're a writer (and you are a writer, right?), the next question is inevitably whether you've been published. The dirty secret is publishing a book doesn't make you a writer. Publishing a book makes you a published writer, in which case bravo. It might even make you 'an author': to me that always seem to entail being a writer who makes money from their work (because writing is work). No, publishing a book does not make you a writer. Writing a book makes you a writer. If you want to be a writer, write. If you want to be even more specific/awe-inspiring, write a poem to be a poet, a novel to be a novelist, a play to be a playwright etc. Preferrably do those things more than once. Do it regularly. Do it with passion and enthusiasm and grim determination. Think about your work when you're not doing it. Talk about your craft with others, join a community of like-minded (like-doing?) people. The secret is that there really is no secret. You want to be a writer, be able to call yourself a writer, just write. The clue is in the noun, derived from the verb 'to write'. A writer is someone who writes. Not someone who is published or paid to write or has been featured on the New York Times best seller list and won multiple awards and had their hit book turned into a hit film and has taken up an appalling addiction to prescription meds because the fame was too much for them. I write therefore I am.

Now, why was that so hard again?