Have you ever given any thought as to how you would define a writer? In other words, how do you know… or who gets to decide, I suppose… if and when it would be appropriate for a person – maybe even you – to claim the label of writer as their own?
What do you think?
- Must your work have been published in paper form? Must it be an actual book, or are magazines, trade journals, newsletters, etc. acceptable?
- What if your medium is online – web site articles, blogging, etc.? (Is that cheating, somehow? Or just the way it is today?)
- Does it matter who publishes your work? What about self-publishing? (Cheating, again?)
- Do you have to be an author to be considered a writer?
- Is a blogger automatically a writer? Can you be a blogger without being a writer?
- Must you have been paid for your writing? Must you sell a certain amount of product?
- Must you have an audience of a specific size or demographic? What if all you ever do is write for your own consumption? (If a tree falls in the forest…)
- Do you have to be “good” by some particular person’s definition? Or is the love of writing enough?
So many questions… and I suspect the answer completely depends on who you ask.
I think I’ll just keep writing until I figure it out.
How do you define a writer?
Please share!
(Originally posted in part in November, 2009.)
