Sunday, May 27, 2012

27. Give Yourself Credit as a Writer.

When my first book was published, I finally felt free to call myself a writer. By then, I had been writing professionally for about five years. I’d written hundreds of soap opera scripts, dozens of articles and stories for Scholastic Magazines, and innumerable teaching guides.

But was I really a writer? For some reason, I always felt shy about saying so. “I write for the soaps,” I might say. Or, “I work at Scholastic.” To me in those days, a writer was someone like Shakespeare or Dostoevsky, or Hemingway or even Erle Stanley Gardner.

My first book, Running for Health and Beauty, was the first mass-market book on running for women.Runningpb I wrote it after having started running in my late twenties. But just as with my writing career, I felt very strange about calling myself a runner. I was slow, and I didn’t like to race. I usually said, “I’m just a jogger.” As for my book, my editor chose the title.

One day I was jogging in Central Park with a friend, and told him I felt funny about the title of the book. He asked why, and I said, “Well, I’m not a real runner.” He said, “We’re running, aren’t we?” I said yes. He said, “Then you’re a runner.”

I know now that the same thing is true of writing. Just as not all runners can finish marathons, not all writers can support themselves writing. But in my opinion, anyone who writes is a writer.

If you have the courage to face that blank page and fill it with your dreams, your imaginings, or even an honest account of what is going on in your life, you’re a writer. If expressing yourself on paper is the way you make sense of your life, if you tell stories because you can’t NOT tell them, you are a writer. If you read books on writing or even my writing tips, because you hope to become better at writing, then you’re a writer.

Tomorrow: How to deal gracefully with editorial suggestions

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12 comments:

  1. I grapple with this same thing. I write and I say I'm a writer, but I don't always feel like I'm justified in saying that because I don't have a "big" publication of my own. Must get over that! Thanks for the encouragement... ;-)

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  2. OMG. I'm a writer. Retired, perhaps, but a writer. There. I said it. LOL

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    1. I didn't feel that I could say "I am a writer" until I got paid for an article. Best hundred bucks of my life! I used it to buy a ring that never comes off my hand. It reminds that I'm a writer, dammit!

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    2. Yes you are, dammit! And a good one!

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  3. I'm a writer. I learned that from the Blogathon. I've been writing a blog for over 3 years, and put a lot of time into learning the craft of blogging. One day I may get paid for some of my writing but for now I continue to learn. You've reinforced this knowledge that I write, and I am a writer. Thank you!

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    1. Thanks for your comment. And I'm delighted you found this post helpful. After all these years I still have to remind myself sometimes!

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  4. Wonderful post. I just put a link to it in the comments section of a blogger pal who writes a terrific blog but claimed not to be a writer because of who she is not. (Actually she claimed not to be a blogger, because her blog was not important enough... but that surpasses even my paranoia.) I do still worry about not being a "real" writer, even though that's how I make my living. Real writers, you see, write fiction...

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  5. Thanks, Edie! And the self-talk is not only that real writers write fiction, they write best-seller fiction. What a trap.

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  6. Oh I struggle with this issue too. Am I a writer because I have a blog? I'm not sure, perhaps if I was making money at it, I would feel differently. Who knows.

    I hear a lot of people who write expressing self-doubt, it's easy to do I guess when you put yourself out there, exposing yourself, and your thoughts it makes you feel vulnerable. No-one likes feeling vulnerable. :-)

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  7. Thanks, Jodi. That's why I wrote this post--because we are all in this leaky boat together!

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