When it comes to being a writer, there’s really only one criteria that has to be met. You have to WRITE!

Sounds pretty simple, right? Okay, then why do so many people call themselves aspiring writers. When I see (or hear that) I automatically assume that they’re aspiring to write some words, they’re thinking about it, and one day, with any luck, they will put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard and…write.

One of my favorite notebooks from my collection.

I realize that’s not how everyone else sees it. In fact, I visited a website the other day of a woman who had written three books. But, right there, across the top of her webpage, right next to her name, were the words: aspiring writer. She had written three full length novels, but she obviously didn’t consider herself to be a writer, she was still aspiring to be one. Hmm.
That got me thinking. At what point ARE you a writer?

Maybe that differs for everyone. Maybe that particular woman didn’t consider herself a writer until a ‘gatekeeper’ told her she was one by offering her representation? Maybe she wouldn’t consider herself a writer until she’d sold her first book? I don’t know. I probably never will.

I do realize that this differs for everyone. But in my eyes, I’m a writer because, well… I write. Even before I was selling my books, I was still a writer. (At least in my own eyes.) I don’t need an agent to tell me I’m ‘good enough’ in order to be a writer. I don’t need to write ten books. Heck, I don’t even need to show anyone my writing if I don’t want to. I’m still a writer, because I write.

I went through a period during University and my first few years of marriage when I didn’t write. I wanted to. I thought about it a lot. I thought about how much I’d enjoyed it all through school. I thought about book ideas. I thought about characters. But…I didn’t write. Not a word. Then I heard this piece of advice, the same advice I give to aspiring writers:

If you wish to be a writer…WRITE!

‘Nuff said.

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So what do you think? Are you a writer because you write or do you have to achieve a milestone to own the title?