Answer This Question: Are You a Writer? Author?

Today's guest post is from a longtime writing friend, David Leonhardt. I met him years ago when we cross promoted an e-book with about a dozen authors from different countries. He has an author service business--his way of SharingwithWriters--something that we both have a passion for.  I love this article because so many of my clients seem a bit shy about calling themselves a writer or an author. There is something zen about just knowing that you are. And owning it. Then others will, too. Here is David's wisdom!

Is it OK to call yourself a writer?

The scenario plays itself over and over.  Somebody loves to write.  Poetry.  Lyrics.  A diary.  Essays.  Humor.  Whatever.  They love to write.  They have a pile of unfinished manuscripts and notes, maybe even completed manuscripts that they have never shown to anybody, or that they have tried unsuccessfully to sell.

Thousands of people around the world who fancy themselves to be writers.  But, they don’t dare call themselves “a writer”. 

Why? When can you call yourself a writer?

Maybe the first time you get a byline, whether you were paid or not?  That means that somebody else believes your writing is worth publishing, but not worth paying for.

Or perhaps the first time you get paid?  That poem that earned you $10 in a literary review?  That means that somebody believes you wrote something worth paying something for.

Or is it the first time you get a book published?  Ah, that means an actual company, a real business that knows what it’s doing, believes you wrote quite a bit that’s worth paying something for.  Unless you self-publish, in which case…well, would you still be “a writer”?

Or is it the day you quit your day job – the day that enough people believe you wrote quite a bit that’s worth paying something for?

How many people have to believe in you to define who you are?

One.

No, this is not a trick question.  It’s not even a question about writing.  It’s a question about how you define yourself – or more to the point, whom you let define you.

What you do for pay and what gets published in somebody else’s publication says nothing about who you are.  It says everything about who they are.

Let’s take an example of a writer who has a day job moving furniture.  Yes, a writer.  He writes because that is what moves him, what fulfills him, what makes him complete.  That is who he is.  He moves furniture to buy clothes and food and pay rent.  He moves furniture because he doesn’t want to violate public decency laws, has a stomach that growls and is allergic to freezing to death.  That makes him a law-abiding human bent on survival, not a furniture mover.

He moves furniture for a living because there are more people in town who need furniture moved than need to read his poems or essays or fantasy manuscript.

In fact, a good argument could be made that as soon as a person is paid for her writing, she becomes less of a writer, since the writing begins more to define the person or people paying.  I won’t make that argument here, as that would be a whole different debate, and I am not even sure where I stand on it.

Money doesn’t make someone a writer.  Getting paid to write makes a person an entrepreneur.  Perhaps they remain just as much a writer, perhaps not.

When it comes to language definitions, there is plenty of room for honest disagreement.  But I’ve been a writer since I wrote for my high school newspaper, becoming co-editor in my senior year.  I have been a writer of poems and song lyrics on nobody’s payroll.  I have since become a published author and a prolific blogger.  I ghostwrite articles and I have written reports and news releases as an employee and as a freelancer.  I think I have been many writers.

But mostly, I am a writer when I feel that I am.  Because putting words together to express an idea is a huge and defining part of whom I am.

What about skill? Does skill make you a writer?  Please don’t re-read the first Half of this blog post, riddled with sentence fragments and full sentences ending in prepositions.  Skilled or not, I am a writer.

Believe it or not, there are a lot of people out there who are clumsy at everything they do.  There are many people who can’t seem to get their lives together.  There are people who are rude and selfish.  There are all sorts of people who are not very skilled at being human.

They are human.  Skilled or not, they are human.

There are writers who can lead you through the gates of Hell, across the vast expanse of space and into the deepest recesses of your mind.  There are other who make you fall asleep.  They are writers if they say so. 

Sorry, but you don’t get to define them.  Not based on skill.  Not based on money.  Not based on anything.  You get to define you.  As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said,

 

 “The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.”

Are you a writer?  If not, what are you?  Who are you? What are your thoughts on this?

Guest post by David Leonhardt at THGM Writing Services:

The Happy Guy Marketing

info@THGMwriters.com
(613) 448-4086 (Canada)
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Hire writers/editors: http://THGMwriters.com
Promote your website: http://www.seo-writer.comhttp://thgmwriters.com"Money doesn't make someon a writer. It only makes them a business. Only writing can make you a writer." ~ David Leonhardt, THGM Writing Services

 

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including the award-winning second edition of, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor .

Writing Help for Your Nonfiction Book--By Skype or In Person

My friend Ellen Snortland helps writers with classes and personal coaching at her Writers’ Workout three Tuesday evenings each month in her home in Altadena, CA. , She is the author of “Beauty Bites Beast," journalist, and Pulitizer prize nominated playwright. She also helps those with a nonfiction book in mind bring it to fruition via Skype. Keep reading.  She says:
OK, you have an inner writer locked in you. What are you doing to release him/her? Talking about it? Do you have a novelist in there? Do you have a murder-mystery writer screaming to emerge? Do you have the next best selling non-fiction author trapped inside, with no apparent “how to” get the book done in sight?

Perhaps you need to make a commitment to work out your “writerly” self. Maybe you need to put some money where your mouth is. Like physical fitness, writing fitness requires strength, time and discipline. Some people can work out on their own. Most of us need support, something like “Writers’ Workout,” the gym for writers.

Tuition is $100 per month for the first year; $75 per month thereafter. Writing wimps need not apply. It takes courage to write! (3 month minimum commitment.) 3 evenings per month, from 7:15- 9:45 p.m.


First Time Nonfiction Book Writers!


Are you serious about writing a book? Do you keep thinking that “tomorrow” or “some day” will be the magic time for you to start? Did you already start your book but are “stuck”? Or have you finished the first draft but are clueless about the “what’s next” part? Ellen Snortland can help you move to the next phase of your book with fun, grace and ease!

Maybe you need to make an investment in your own work. People often become more serious about their art when they put money behind their commitments.

Ellen Snortland — author of “Beauty Bites Beast,” Pasadena Weekly columnist and playwright does private coaching with her consulting business “My First Book Coach.”

Rates are:

$125 per hour with a 3 hour minimum commitment.
Free 1/2 hour consultation. Do you live in another time zone? No problem! I SKYPE all over the world!
(Rates negotiable in customized “packages.”)

Find Ellen at http://www.snortland.com/

----- Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog:

A Little Inspiration Here for Young Writers

I am publishing a poem written by D. B. Pacini. She says, I title the following poem 'Young Poets' but it applies to all young writers that I mentor." I feel the same way about the writers I work with -- young or old -- for we writers are among those artists who share their souls.


Young Poets

Dedicated especially to SMV and Dallas


You are the morning
That comes in the afternoon.
You are the scraps
Of many old books,
The authors of new ones.
You take this ancient world
Into your hands,
And make it new.
You are bold.
You are powerful.
You are hope.
You are the only chance left.
You are an unbroken promise.
When you speak
We should listen.
When you whisper
We should listen hard.
I have been writing
More years than you are old.
But it is you that amazes me.
Like a river
You quench thirst.
Do I believe in you?
Yes, more than you do.
Are you precious?
Yes, more than gold.
Are you important?
Yes, as much as oxygen.
I compare you
To true love and the sweetest dreams,
To mountain tops and clear trickling streams,
To sunrises, sunsets, and inventions not invented yet
Because I can’t think of anything
That compares with you.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~D. B. Pacini

Thank you, Donna!
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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author THIS IS THE PLACE; HARKENING: A COLLECTION OF STORIES REMEMBERED; TRACINGS, a chapbook of poetry; and two how to books, THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER: HOW TO DO WHAT YOUR PUBLISHER WON'T; and THE FRUGAL EDITOR: PUT YOUR BEST BOOK FORWARD TO AVOID HUMILIATION AND ENSURE SUCCESS.
Her other blogs include TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com and AuthorsCoalition.blogspot.com, a blog that helps writers and publishers turn a ho-hum book fair booth into a sizzler.

Mentor or Mentee and Mentoring

I believe in mentoring. Not just young people but big people, too.

One of my favorite mentees is Dallas Woodburn. She is a junior at my alma mater, USC(University of Southern California). Trouble is, I don't know which one of us is mentor and which is mentee. Which, as it happens--is nearly always the case.


Dallas is majoring in Creative Writing. She has published two books of short stories (her latest, 3 a.m., is available at Amazon.com). She has also published nearly 60 feature stories in magazines including Writer's Digest, The Writer, Family Circle, Justine, Cicada, Listen, and CO-ED. She has been published in four "Chicken Soup for the Soul" books including Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul IV and was recently honored as one of seven national Jim Murray Scholars for her biweekly column for the USC student newspaper The Daily Trojan.

Dallas launched a nonprofit foundation “Write On!” in 2000 to encourage kids to find joy, confidence, and a means of self-expression through writing and reading. Today, Write On's writing contests receive entries from all over the US and Canada. Dallas awards scholarships each year for young writers to attend the Santa Barbara Writers Conference Young Writers Program and the USC Summer Seminars Program. Her Write On Holiday Book Drive has collected and distributed 9,142 new books to underprivileged youth in just six years. Check out Dallas’s website at www.zest.net/writeon and her blog at http://dallaswoodburn.blogspot.com.

Dallas is my idea of what Sharing with Writers is all about. Won't you visit her site, donate to her causes, or simply leave a note of encouragement on her blog. Think of what we can all do together.

By the way, this picture of Dallas is great but she is most proud that the typewriter is Jim Murray's. I like that little yellow band she's wearing on her left wrist, too, don't you? (-:

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author THIS IS THE PLACE; HARKENING: A COLLECTION OF STORIES REMEMBERED; TRACINGS, a chapbook of poetry; and two how to books, THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER: HOW TO DO WHAT YOUR PUBLISHER WON'T; and THE FRUGAL EDITOR: PUT YOUR BEST BOOK FORWARD TO AVOID HUMILIATION AND ENSURE SUCCESS.
Her other blogs include TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com and AuthorsCoalition.blogspot.com, a blog that helps writers and publishers turn a ho-hum book fair booth into a sizzler.