Carlie commented recently that I should be more assertive about my ambition as a writer. But I have always been rather coy about identifying myself that way. It's the fear of being judged not worthy of so illustrious a title crossed with the shame of being caught out engaged in something so untoward. Despite it being such an enormous part of my identity since childhood I, along with many others, kept my writing self hidden in the closet for many years:
Coming out as a writer is rather like being gay. It’s such an outrageous vocation to choose. It’s not just emotionally risky, it depends on your ability to entertain 20,000 strangers.
But at least he's someone the public would recognise as a legitimate writer, earning money and acclaim. If he struggles, what hope for the rest of us with so much less to show for our efforts?
allow us to be writers, to define ourselves as such and thus validate the enterprise of sitting for long hours at a desk with no certainty of outcome, financial or otherwise
Shelley Weiner
I've actually grown more confident since starting this blog, though I doubt it's ever going to entertain 20,000 strangers. But what I've learnt is that I don't have to wait for someone to allow me to be a writer; I am one, and here's why.
A writer is someone who edits their work
I know there's a view that a writer is anyone who writes, but I don't think life's supposed to be that easy. But when you make the move from writing as splurging the contents of your mind onto screen or paper to getting out that red pen or its virtual equivalent, that's when you become a real writer.
A writer knows the rules of writing
... although may not necessarily follow them!
As writers, we can write how the hell we like, but I think it behoves us to have a reasonable acquaintance of the basics of spelling and grammar, as well as the fundamentals of writing technique, such as showing versus telling; pacing and tension; writing credible characters – and making sure your sentences don't run away with themselves. The kind of thing that's covered ad nauseam in books, blogs and courses, which might be just as well, because you can never get enough. While I say a writer knows, it's a kind of knowing that shrinks as it grows because, the more you go into it, the more you discover there is to learn. Although I guess it's like that with most complex matters.
A writer has served their time
... although may not necessarily follow them!
As writers, we can write how the hell we like, but I think it behoves us to have a reasonable acquaintance of the basics of spelling and grammar, as well as the fundamentals of writing technique, such as showing versus telling; pacing and tension; writing credible characters – and making sure your sentences don't run away with themselves. The kind of thing that's covered ad nauseam in books, blogs and courses, which might be just as well, because you can never get enough. While I say a writer knows, it's a kind of knowing that shrinks as it grows because, the more you go into it, the more you discover there is to learn. Although I guess it's like that with most complex matters.
A writer has served their time
My granddad's apprenticeship contract 1922 It takes time to learn to edit, time to find your voice, time to work out how to make the rules work for you, so I don't think anyone is justified in waking up one morning and saying, I'm a writer, without putting in the work. They've got to serve an apprenticeship first, albeit one that's not very clearly defined. How much time do they have to sit chained to their desk before I'll grant them the title? How much help or training will they get along the way? Nothing is guaranteed apart from, perhaps, the disappointments, the early expectations proven to be naïve, like the young apprentice sent to the storeroom to fetch a long stand.
A writer has readers
A writer has readers
Although it's much easier with the help of other people, a writer can learn her craft ensconced in the seclusion of her garret, divorced from the rest of the world. But to overcome my final hurdle, her writing has to find an audience one way or another.
In the same way that the word mother carries with it the implication of a child, a leader implies followers and a teacher students, a writer needs readers before they're properly invested with the role. It needn't be the 20,000 strangers Mark Haddon mentioned – I've genuinely no idea but with so much competition for people's attention on the internet I'd be delighted if I had twenty people reading my short stories – but it needs to be more than friends and family and her cosy creative writing group. Publication might be less about kudos or a hallmark of quality (that's a whole different ballgame) but the process for the writer of letting go of her creation and allowing readers to make of it what they will (which isn't always what you expect).
Is that it?
I've been brewing this post for quite a while and am conscious that there's stuff I haven't touched on and, on a different day, I might have come up with something quite different. I'm quite satisfied with how this defines me as a writer – except that what I really want to be is a novelist.
What do you think?
In the same way that the word mother carries with it the implication of a child, a leader implies followers and a teacher students, a writer needs readers before they're properly invested with the role. It needn't be the 20,000 strangers Mark Haddon mentioned – I've genuinely no idea but with so much competition for people's attention on the internet I'd be delighted if I had twenty people reading my short stories – but it needs to be more than friends and family and her cosy creative writing group. Publication might be less about kudos or a hallmark of quality (that's a whole different ballgame) but the process for the writer of letting go of her creation and allowing readers to make of it what they will (which isn't always what you expect).
Is that it?
I've been brewing this post for quite a while and am conscious that there's stuff I haven't touched on and, on a different day, I might have come up with something quite different. I'm quite satisfied with how this defines me as a writer – except that what I really want to be is a novelist.
What do you think?
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