A big thanks goes out to Alex J. Cavanaugh, who hosts The Insecure Writer's Support Group. Check it out for yourself!Just a quick note about what it takes to be a writer.
Lately, I've been focused and driven. For the last six weeks or so I've been able to write every day excluding Sunday (much needed worship and rest is reserved for that day). I've also been focused on publishing the short story I've been serializing during the A-Z Challenge - read it here for free until I actually get that done.
All that work has made me realize something very elementary - but necessary. No matter how much I publish, or weather I publish at all, I'm only a writer if I write. If my family and close friends are the only ones who read my work, I'm still a writer, and at least I've reached them!
So, all that to say this: if you write, you're a writer. Not, if you publish, you're a writer.
Got it?
Okay, I'll listen to my own advice - I promise!
12 comments:
Hi, visiting from the IWSG. Wow,its wonderful that you have been able to write everyday except Sundays for six weeks. Agree that "if we write, we are writers.
Rachna Chhabria
Co-host IWSG
Rachna's Scriptorium
Got it - and I totally agree! Good for you getting in all that writing time.
What a great point! I think the same thing. No matter if I'm writing a blog post or working on my book, I'm creating a masterpiece. In my mind, anyway!
IWSG
Elsie
Thanks, all, for stopping by! Keep writing!
I have learned that exact same lesson this past month and it kills me that it's a lesson friends have been telling me for years. But I only now really get it.
But hey, better late than never.
Hi from IWSG. Great words of wisdom, and so true. I'll keep them in mind.
Of course we can't let that fact serve as an excuse for not working on improving our writing or getting published/self-published.
But if you are actively writing--- and actively working on improving the quality of your writing--- you are a writer.
From IWSG
I left a couple of writing groups for the very issue you are discussing. The people in them didn't feel that they were writers until they were published so they spent all their energy on trying to get published rather than simply becoming good writers. It's a craft and you have to practice and take chances and be merciless and brutal in editing in order to be GOOD. I maintain that it's much better to be a "good writer" than a published writer and by good I mean, the best damn writer you are capable of being. Not the most lauded or highest paid, but simply someone who loves what they do and works hard to do it well.
"Whatever you are, be a good one."
This is a really good reminder: You're only a writer if you write.
www.modernworld4.blogspot.com
I agree! We don't need to be with one of the Big Six in order to be a writer.
Nissa, you're right, ACTIVELY is the key.
Mencara, it's a shame that some writers do believe that. It's a shame, too, that we don't have much of an oral tradition either. My grandfather was a great story teller - and that's what writers should be, too. Publishing is sometimes simply a matter of who you know.
Stephen, ah the big 6 (I don't even know the exact publishers you're referencing, but we certainly can be tempted to let $$ determine our level of success).
That is the definition! A writer writes, whether it's a full manuscript, short stories, articles, or blog posts.
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