Tumbclio

the size of tiny changes in the heart: Let's stop

Let’s stop
putting limits on the term “writer.” You’re not a writer unless you’re being paid to write says one person. (The other option is, of course, you are a writer if you actually write.)

Here’s the bottom line: you are only trying to define the word because you are threatened by others. If the six-year-old neighbor drafts a letter to her mother and calls herself a writer while you’re getting thrown an advance because someone thinks you’ve written the Next Great American Novel, so what? It does not change the value she finds in the title of Writer and it shouldn’t change yours, either.

If you study writing and want to call yourself a writer, do so. If you study engineering and want to call yourself a writer, do so. If you’re working on a short story and want to call yourself a writer, do so. If you think, for some reason, you should be the only one professionally called A Writer, then you’re writing for the wrong reasons. Aren’t you?

I don’t know. I’ve just never picked up a novel by, say, Dave Eggers and saidyou know, man, that was great. One of the best books I’ve ever read. But his status as a writer really means less to me since that fourteen year old fan fiction writer forgot a comma and then called himself a writer in the ‘about me’ section on his Facebook.

Source: brighteryellow