What makes a writer?

Well, if it doesn't include people that don't write every day, then I'm certainly not a writer (perhaps I'm an uninspired one. I'm hoping NaNo can really pull me out of this).

The only prerequisite for me to think of someone of a writer is that they have to love writing. They have to do it for themselves. It sounds selfish, but I don't care. The people who write for fame (those people are also idiots; not many writers gain fame), the people who write to impress other people, not because they love to...they aren't writers. For me, all you have to do is love to write.

<3Kate

I do not know beneath what sky nor on what seas shall be thy fate.
I only know it shall be high; I only know it shall be great.

Writers write. Anyone who makes the time and effort, for whatever reason, for free or for pay, for publication or not, to make words into sentences into stories, is a writer. Someone who merely thinks about doing this, is not. Yet. That's the brilliance of this whole Nano shebang - it turns daydreamers like me into doers.

As for writing every day... It's like exercise. I don't, but I know I should. Come November, though, my schedule is clear.

2007: Nightfall in Majadan (won!)
2008: Daughters of Majadan

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“Writing is easy. You only need to stare at a piece of blank paper until your forehead bleeds” - Douglas Adams

someone who is published is a published author.
I don't think a writer has to write every day, sometimes life does get in the way, that is why carrying a notebook is always good. However, I think a writer is a person that often has the sudden urge to write something and if they don't they will not have a mind at rest. And what they write has to have meaning, at least to them. Someone who sits and writes one word over and over again, well, I wouldn't consider them a writer.

That's an interesting example there, busy, about the writing one word over and over again. I'd agree with you - that person could definitely be an artist, but a "writer"? I guess they are writing, so in a way they are... but that's one of the places where the line gets blurred. Would that be a piece of visual art... or a piece of writing?

I don't think a writer has to be published. I had friends in high school who considered themselves writers, and they were cautious about publishing their work. They believed they were writers because they wrote stories, and I agreed with them.

Interesting question about someone being a writer through their blogs. I am split on that, because on one hand they are writing something so absolutely they are writers. But some blogs are so poorly written I really don't want to call them (the bloggers) writers. That being said, some novels are poorly written too, and like it or not their authors are writers, so why should bloggers be any different?

I read something once where somebody said "If you don't write every day you are not a writer and should not call yourself one." I wanted to hit them over the head with my laptop. I don't care that they write every single day and they're published and everybody loves them including writing critics and so on. That just isn't true. I think a writer is anyone who at any point sits down and writes something. Besides, it it were true that you could only call yourself a writer if you wrote every day, I'm sure a lot of writers would be stripped of their title. I know I would.

A writer is someone who writes. Just like a swimmer is someone who swims, a runner is someone who runs, a channel surfer is someone who surfs channels. If I were to be all philosophical about it, I might say something like this:

Since the literal meaning of the word "writer" is simply "one who writes," is not any piece of writing, however small, make someone a writer? A blog post, a book report, a journal entry, even a text message. Does that not make almost everyone on the planet a writer?

I would say that in an educated-sounding British accent of course. Anyway, I think of a writer as someone published, someone seeking publishing, or someone like me, who maybe hasn't finished anything, but they like to write stories of poetry or anything like that. Someone who uses writing of some form as a creative outlet. They don't have to be published or even remotely thinking of trying to get published to be a writer to me. But that's just me.

"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing noise they make as they pass by"
-Douglas Adams
My blog

I personally do not buy into the mentality there is some prerequisite for calling oneself a writer other than performing the act of writing. A writer is a person who writes... period. Now are all writers also good writers, serious writers, frequent writers, or published writers? Of course not, but they are writers just the same.

I know there are a lot of people out there who feel a writer has to be published in order to be able to call themselves writers, but I think that's a load of hooey. You're just not published yet is all. Maybe you don't care about being published at all. Some people don't, but it doesn't mean they don't take their writing seriously or aren't passionate about what they do. It's really up to the individual.

Even among the published, there is still this stupid caste system that I don't believe in. Some published writers look down on other writers who have only been published in magazines or anthologies. Some published novelists look down on other published novelists who don't write what they consider "serious literature". It's pretty much never-ending, which you find out if you ever stick your toe in the vast ocean that is "writing professionally".

Take me, for instance. Have I been published before? Absolutely. In fact, I had two articles published in Stressfree Living Magazine just last month, and I've had plenty of material of various types published by others before in numerous other ways over the years. I've published some of my own work for fun as well. I even work professionally as a freelance writer and editor. A lot of people think that's all pretty effin' cool.

However, there are those out there that wouldn't consider me a "real" writer for any number of the reasons I listed previously. I beg to differ. I am most definitely a writer, and I'm a damned good one, even if I do say so myself. I will never allow anyone else to tell me otherwise.

However, you shouldn't just take my word for it. The only opinion that really matters is yours. Decide for yourself what you feel being a writer is all about, and then live by those standards.

: )

Visit My Website -- Add Me On MySpace - My Tips for Surviving (and Winning) NaNo

A writer is someone who writes.

A writer who has been published is a published writer.

One is not necessarily better than the other. It all depends on what the writer wants to get out of the experience of writing.

This is kinda goofy, but for year's whenever I've doubted my abilities, I remember a line from Sister Act II where Whoopie Goldberg tells Lauryn Hill: "If you wake up in the morning, and you can't think anything but singing, then you should be a singer, girl."

It sorta resonated with me and actually translates quite well to life and certainly to writing.

You are what you are most passionate about. Whether you are or aren't "good enough" by someone else's standards isn't the issue. It's about embracing an ART form that shapes our lives. It's about seeing something in our world that most people just breeze right past. There's such beauty in that. And it's kinda cool when you find someone else who "gets it", like an instant kindred connection.

Coco the Wonder Bat: Ya know what, Daddy? You're bad, evil, and wrong... I like you!
Peyton: Coco-baby, my ear is not a chew toy. -sigh-
Lillia: Is she always this...erm...drooly?

Chase
NaNo-X Novel: The Underground
If I stare at you, it's not because you look good. It's because you just helped me figure out how to off my villain. ^_~

I'm reminded of a line I read in a book about horseback riding which said (paraphrased): "You cannot call yourself a real rider until you've fallen off 20 times." (Yeeeah, not a reliable book on riding.)
But the real rider isn't the one who falls off 20 times. The real rider is the one who gets back on 20 times.

And I think this applies to writing. Anyone who's written something can technically be called a writer, just as anyone who's been on a horse's back could be called a rider. But the writers are the ones who keep going. Writer's block? Crush it! Inner editor giving you problems? Lock it in the dungeon and throw away the key! They lumber on until they reach 'The End', exhausted but satisfied. And then they gladly do it all over again.

To me, a writer is someone who gets hit by rabid plot bunnies and has to write Right Now or they'll die. They literally can't think about anything else, they have to get those words on paper.

An author, however, is a published writer. I'm a writer and an aspiring author.

2007: Feline Overflow

Am I still a musician even though I don't have a record deal?

Anyone who writes is a writer. Now, whether someone is a good writer is a different question...

Still, I find it hard to call myself a musician or a writer. I find it hard to call myself an anything. I write, but am I a writer? I make music, but am I a musician? I cook dinner sometimes, but am I a chef? I go fishing, but am I a fisherman? For some reason, it's easier to call myself a student or to define myself by what kind of job I have.

"A bibliophile of little means is likely to suffer often. Books don't slip from his hands but fly past him through the air, high as birds, high as prices." --Pablo Neruda

I vaguely remember a quote about writing: it said that you're a writer because to you, writing is like breathing- you can't live without it. I think the same can be said of any kind of artist/musician, anyone who creates, no matter what tools you use to create.

Seems as simple as that, to me. You write because you can't stop writing- regardless of whether you're published or not.

2007: The Darkest Twist (Fail)
2008: The Words Between (Win!)

I usually tell people "I write." I don't tell them I'm a writer. I'm not sure if I am... I guess everyone who spends most of their time writing, can be called a writer, lol.

They call me Nanda.

Yes.

In my opinion anyway. Look at it this way - a classical pianist who has spent 10+ years going through the Conservatory now teaches music. In her home, at a school, or for free to under priveledged (sp?) children. She does not have a record deal - in fact I'm willing to bet most music teachers don't. Is she a musician? Definitely.

Another pianist has completed half her Conservatory program - maybe to grade 4 or 5 ish. She works in some other non-music related field but when she comes home from work she is pulled to the piano and spends whatever available time she has plunking out new melodies, playing favorites, teaching herself new pieces, perfecting old pieces... you get the picture. She is not paid. She might not even be called a 'professional'. But is she a musician??

Yes.

Why? Because music is her life - maybe not her paid life, or her 'professional' life (for whatever reason - though most likely financial) - but she still lives and breathes music.

I picked on classical pianists for my analogy because it's not very common I don't think for them to end up "doing it for a living". However, that doesn't mean they are not musicians. Do they create music? Yes. either by performing someone elses works for self-pleasure or for others pleasure; or by actually writing her own and tinkering with it.

Still a muscian.

So just because you don't have a record deal, doesn't mean you aren't a muscian. If music is in your soul - you're there dude!!

JMHO

I think, possibly, it's depends on the individual. Some people do seem to think that you have to be writing every day or at least regularly to consider yourself a writer. But I don't. I write kind of sporadically. I haven't written much at all since last year's NaNo, until maybe a month ago when I got into a spurt of poetry.

But I think like a writer. Even if I'm not writing, I create stories in my head. Constantly. I imagine situations, conversations, characters ... I can't stop it. Most of it is just snippets of things, but sometimes I think "Hey, that's a good idea." And maybe then I'll write it down and see if it goes somewhere.

For me, that's what makes me a writer. I don't physically write all the time, just because life gets in my way, but I think in stories, and to me, writing a story in my head is also as good of practice as writing it down on paper. Just nobody can see it but me.

A writer ~ one who is willing to wrestle regularly with words, so s/he can share something with the world.

A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.
Thomas Mann

Anybody can become a writer, but the trick is to stay a writer.
Harlan Ellison

You have to write a million words before you find your voice as a writer.
Henry Miller

Art begins with craft, and there is no art until craft has been mastered.
Anthony Burgess

Style may be defined as the proper words in the proper places.
Jonathan Swift

Penvy - the heart-stab one feels upon learning that a less talented acquaintance has just published to great acclaim.
Lawrence McGuire, Waldorf, MD

"Many people hear voices when no one is there. Some of them are called mad and are shut up in rooms where they stare at the walls all day. Others are called writers and they do pretty much the same thing."
- Margaret Chittenden

I think writing is the only requisite.

The mind can be a playground if you use it.

Planning progress: I know that it's set in a hotel.

Years back I was a runner. I ran in road races. I ran about seven miles a day, and I loved it. I read running magazines, books on running, you name it.

I got injured, so I can't run anymore. I miss being able to run. Whenever I see anyone else out running, I wish I was running myself.

I may not be running, But I still consider myself a runner.

With writing, is it what you really want to do? Do you miss it when you aren't?

Only you can decide if you are a writer, or if you just want to be.

You may not know until you try it.

If you say you're a writer, I won't try to say you're not.

There are ballerinas in tutus and toe slippers who are in ballets, and they still aren't really ballerinas.
There are girls who don't have tutus, toe slippers, and aren't in a ballet, but really want to be. These are ballerinas.

Are you a writer?

That's something only you can say.

2006 (Won) Title: I Can't See Myself! -- SciFi/Fantasy -- invisibility
2007 (Won!) Title: The Amber Pendant -- SciFi/Fantasy -- Time Travel Murder Mystery
2008 (Won!) Title: The Conspiracy Class -- Mainstream/ Thriller -- Conspiracy

Well I read Harlan Ellison's views on it, and he says that to be writer and stay one, you pretty much are one when they drag you out of the womb. There are authors, and there are writers. Please try to keep the two distinct.

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Your explanation reached a place I wasn't able to get to with my definition, Bookworm, -what it feels like to be a writer.
Good post.

I think that someone who writes, is a writer.
I've considered myself to be a writer since I was nine years old and wrote my first book.
I really don't get how some people say in order to be a writer they have to be published, or they have to be a really popular/successful author to be a writer.
To me, if you write and you enjoy writing and you take every oppurtunity you have to write, then you are a writer.

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Nano 2005-Coloring Outside The Lines...WON!
Nano 2006-Paper Hearts Have Strings...WON!
Nano 2007-The Elite...WON!
Nano 2008-Secrets...0/50,000

I'm an artistic person. I'm creative, and I have many ideas, but I can't paint or draw (well, I'm honestly better than most people, but not as good as I would like to be). Therefore I developed my natural talent in writing to bring my visions to a realm in which others can understand it. I say developed my natural talent because I am just one of those people who can wait until the day its due to sit down and just write a paper. I don't actually plan out my literary works, they simply come to me; I am but a tool used by my imagination to bring its visions to life.

It really depends on the context surrounding the use of the word. For example, I am the writer of this post. But, because I write this post, does that make me a writer in some sort of deeper way? No, I don't think so.

I don't think being published makes a writer. I don't think writing every day makes a writer. Heck, I don't really think that having an idea and struggling with one makes a writer.

Being published makes one an author, I would agree. Although, as above, I'm not only the writer of this post, I'm also the author of this post. Of course, this post is published, in the sense of being available to the public, since it is not on a private forum. But even on a private forum, I would still be the author of any posts I made there.

I think I'm confusing myself, but I've always said that the only way you can clean something up is to make a bigger mess first.

Holly Lisle, I think, once said that a writer was someone who wrote a book, and then wrote another book, and then wrote another book.

I'm not sure I agree with that, either, since I think being a writer entails actual creation, and while she might creatively keep writing new books, I can imagine a person who ends up writing by rote, and is no longer involved in the creation.

Aha! Something that isn't just what I don't think determines a writer. A writer needs to write, obviously. And, from the perspective of a *writer* in an existential sense (not just a relative - I'm the writer of this sentence sense), a writer needs to be involved with creation. I also think that to be considered a writer, a person must write regularly. By regularly, I don't mean every day, but I do mean that it's not something you do once. It's something you come back to again and again. Whether that again and again is every day or every ten years is less important than the feeling of being called back in some way.

I think to be called a writer, you also must want to improve your writing. This may involve editing/revising things you've written, but it also might involve experimentation, trying out new forms or new ways of doing things. It also means that at the sight of struggle, you don't give up, but work through it in some way - perhaps by trying something else and setting it aside for awhile, or by deliberately trying to find the solutions for that work. If it is a writing difficulty, it can be something you learn, like grammar or using a different point of view. If it is a social difficulty, it can mean learning how to incorporate writing into a life full of other distractions, or more drastically, learning from their reaction to your desire to write, that the people around you are not as respectful or understanding as you thought. Writing isn't just something you do, it's something that can potentially change your life.

Writing, in this sense is not a job. It is not your whole life, either. Writing is a vocation, and a writer is someone who embarks on that vocation with eyes wide open.

Banner by August. Thank you!
Don't write badly, write madly

This quote (I cannot recall who said it) sums up what a writer is to me: "I write for the same reason I breathe, because if I did not I would die."

Period. Paid, unpaid, fanfic or original, poetry or gay smut, a writer is someone who *needs* to put words on paper. A writer is not what you do, it is who your are.

I believe that if you call yourself a writer, then you are a writer.

Simple enough? The only person with the capacity to judge whether or not you are a writer is yourself, so the only criteria for being a writer is your own approval.

2007
Untitled - 78,526 (Abandoned post-NaNo)

I believe that certain people are born with an aptitude for certain things. For example, my mother bought me multiple instruments as a child, and I took lessons for years; yet, I never enjoyed music. I just wasn't programmed for it. A different person would love that, and love music, and think in music. Musicians have melodies or lyrics pop into their heads. Artists think in colors and shapes and patterns.

Writers on the other hand, think with words. They can take anything, and make it sound different, interesting, deep, funny, etc. You either have the nack, or you don't. If you're blessed enough to be good at writing and enjoy it, you're a writer. (For life. There's no escaping the character voices that will invade your head.)

My 2008 NaNo (My first year participating): Broken Soul, a young adult novel diving into the topics of child abuse, religion, the friendships that last a lifetime, and the friendships that don't. Completed at 54,610 words on 11-29-08.

Oops, I double posted. Don't know how to delete.

My 2008 NaNo (My first year participating): Broken Soul, a young adult novel diving into the topics of child abuse, religion, the friendships that last a lifetime, and the friendships that don't. Completed at 54,610 words on 11-29-08.