The pair of you have turned my thinking upside down. Having spent the last X number of years working to convince myself I am a human BEING (Allegra's "I am a writer"), I must pause to ponder if I would be better off as a human DOER (A's "I write"). What is "better off?" A more prolific writer? More successful? Pages flying out of my printer like cards dealt by a high-strung poker dealer. I have been unemployed for so long (as a financial analyst in mergers & acquisitions - a REAL job, so they say), that no one asks me anymore what I DO. I DID raising 2 children. One is a successful businesswoman. The other graduated last weekend with and MD and PhD. Their achievements, not mine, which brings me back to the question: what am I or what do I do?
Long before circumstances ever led me to business school, I dreamt of writing and publishing books. Especially memoir. Sometimes you are so busy slaying dragons in your story, there is little time or energy to write it down. I am ready to write it down. Whether "I write" or "I am a writer" matters for forms (I hear you, Allegra-going from writing "Housewife" - the word should be banished because really, who is married to their house? - to "Writer" on government forms - was epic). It may matter to others in coffee shops or bars who need a recitation of your work to validate your statements. It does not matter to our fellow writers who know the gumption it takes to make either statement. The swallowing of self-recriminating bile that precedes the flow of these words. Most of all, it does not matter to me because underneath that 5-letter transitive verb lies the entire rainbow of human emotion. It is the joyfulness of a maestro bidding all instruments to come together in their most pleasing voice. It is the urgency of an advocate trumpeting a message the world needs to hear. It is the whisper that soothes in times of sorrow and the bells that ring in days of triumph. In the end, I am a writer because I write.
Fascinating, thank you. In Britain, as Allegra knows, the word 'author' is also regularly used, often preceded (in reviews and the like) by the words 'greatest living ...', 'leading ...' or 'up-and-coming ...'. From what I can make out, most of those to whom this is applied appear to be writers of fiction, as similar epithets are also applied to 'biographers', 'poets' and the like, suggesting that 'author' may be a (literary/fiction) sub-division of writer. Personally, I tend to describe myself as 'writer and researcher', partly because, in many ways, I enjoy the 'chase' of research more than the final, painstaking honing of the pre-publication proof.
On the biographical front, one of my subjects, photographer Herbert Ponting, described himself on official documents over a relatively short period as banker, farmer, 'of independent means', photographer, etc., etc., - as none of his personal journals have been found, it was a valuable insight as to how he saw himself as his career evolved.
The pair of you have turned my thinking upside down. Having spent the last X number of years working to convince myself I am a human BEING (Allegra's "I am a writer"), I must pause to ponder if I would be better off as a human DOER (A's "I write"). What is "better off?" A more prolific writer? More successful? Pages flying out of my printer like cards dealt by a high-strung poker dealer. I have been unemployed for so long (as a financial analyst in mergers & acquisitions - a REAL job, so they say), that no one asks me anymore what I DO. I DID raising 2 children. One is a successful businesswoman. The other graduated last weekend with and MD and PhD. Their achievements, not mine, which brings me back to the question: what am I or what do I do?
Long before circumstances ever led me to business school, I dreamt of writing and publishing books. Especially memoir. Sometimes you are so busy slaying dragons in your story, there is little time or energy to write it down. I am ready to write it down. Whether "I write" or "I am a writer" matters for forms (I hear you, Allegra-going from writing "Housewife" - the word should be banished because really, who is married to their house? - to "Writer" on government forms - was epic). It may matter to others in coffee shops or bars who need a recitation of your work to validate your statements. It does not matter to our fellow writers who know the gumption it takes to make either statement. The swallowing of self-recriminating bile that precedes the flow of these words. Most of all, it does not matter to me because underneath that 5-letter transitive verb lies the entire rainbow of human emotion. It is the joyfulness of a maestro bidding all instruments to come together in their most pleasing voice. It is the urgency of an advocate trumpeting a message the world needs to hear. It is the whisper that soothes in times of sorrow and the bells that ring in days of triumph. In the end, I am a writer because I write.
P.S. Nave-you already have an air of mystery ;)
"underneath that 5-letter transitive verb lies the entire rainbow of human emotion" - well said!
Men have been shaming women for hundreds of years out
Of taking ourselves seriously . This is another example. Don’t be shamed out of calling yourself what you are:
A writer
Fascinating, thank you. In Britain, as Allegra knows, the word 'author' is also regularly used, often preceded (in reviews and the like) by the words 'greatest living ...', 'leading ...' or 'up-and-coming ...'. From what I can make out, most of those to whom this is applied appear to be writers of fiction, as similar epithets are also applied to 'biographers', 'poets' and the like, suggesting that 'author' may be a (literary/fiction) sub-division of writer. Personally, I tend to describe myself as 'writer and researcher', partly because, in many ways, I enjoy the 'chase' of research more than the final, painstaking honing of the pre-publication proof.
On the biographical front, one of my subjects, photographer Herbert Ponting, described himself on official documents over a relatively short period as banker, farmer, 'of independent means', photographer, etc., etc., - as none of his personal journals have been found, it was a valuable insight as to how he saw himself as his career evolved.