It was, oddly enough, my shrink who gave me some very valuable thoughts that – I think, at least – pertain to this. He heard me boxing myself, limiting myself with nouns; that’s what he said. “Stop using nouns, start using verbs.” He told me to stop calling myself ‘an artist’, ‘a loser’, ‘a snob’, and instead talk about what I do. To instead say that ‘I make art’, or a ‘I have lost’ or a ‘I am critical’. It’s a profoundly interesting mental exercise, at least it has been for me.

Thing is? I *do* like to call myself ‘a writer’, but not just because I write. I’m less likely to call myself that to someone who supports themselves writing, but to random people, it gets across what I need it to: that I consider writing my job. I put the effort and hours and learning in, honing and working on it as a craft, something I’d like to be excellent in. The sort of writing I do isn’t something that gets paid. I’d like it to get some credibility, but that’s not going to happen anytime soon. In the meantime I’ll publish some things, maybe, or maybe not. I’d love money, and I’d love to be taken seriously…but really, I just want to write shit that other people like reading. While I do agree with you (and Filamena, too) that it’s annoying for me as an artist and caretaker to see people using those words lightly, I’m likely to modulate my opinion by how much time and effort and work they put into it, rather than if they’ve ever happened to get paid for it. If someone sits down and finishes a work, even though they have 100,000 things they could do – and then they sit down and edit and work at it? You know, I’ll let them be a writer. Me, I’ll just be Someone Who Writes. …a lot. An awful lot.

I also fully intend to use the term “penmonkey” from now on and baffle anyone asking me about what I do for a living (“You… write? Really?”) by using that expression . Ha.

I fell a little short, let me addend.

I used to work in retail. I don’t identify myself as a retailer.

My brother in law worked through college as a roofer. He is not a roofer.

The hypothetical person in question should not–if he’s being honest with himself–identify himself as a writer.

Nor if he wrote for the school paper call himself a journalist, etc.

However, he can bring something to the discussion as someone who HAS WRITTEN.

As an aside, the firm I used to work for was filled with people who wrote all day. All day. Not a one of them considered themself a writer. They’re engineers.

It’s anecdotal but within is a nugget of truth.

–M

To borrow Chuck’s wonderful illustration above: if I used to be in construction do I still identify myself as a carpenter/roofer/etc? Probably not.

HOWEVER, I do have a slightly better case when talking to others who are in construction that I know what I’m talking about.

It’s simply a line of respect. If I’m in seminary I would never think to identify myself as a priest.

Yet.

It doesn’t mean I won’t be. Only that I’m not right now.

Mind you this is the same guy who, when I told him I was thinking about giving up writing, quite literally asked if I was stupid or just acting that way. All I did was write. It wasn’t something I could give up anymore than breathing air. It is a part of who I am and what I do. Whether I ever got published or not.

It didn’t make me a writer though.

Not yet.

And maybe for some, not ever.

Chuck isn’t telling hobbyists, etc. to not take joy from what they do, or to stop flexing that muscle. Just stop claiming what you haven’t earned the right to claim.

Yet.

Jerks.

–M

(Holy crap!)

(Otherwise: high-five! Scream it, sister souljah!)

Do work, y’all.

– c.

Maybe you should be calling the non-writer writer out? I sold my first serious short story not because it was brilliant, but because I worked my ass off to find a home for it. I read about the markets, what editors want, how to submit without looking like a jackass, and did the work to make sure that the story was readable.

I don’t think it’s the writing or not writing that separates real writers from amateurs. It’s all the other fucking work that goes into it. That shit sucks, and it has nothing to do with the creative process. It gets in the way, makes you crazy, makes your yonni bleed. (True story.) But, if you want to get paid, if you want to be legitmate, it’s what you fucking do. If you want to be a ‘real’ writer you knuckle down, do the hard work (not the fun stuff,) and sell a fucking story or poem or article.

I’m saying, if you’re offended by what Chuck said, buckle down, sell a story, and then post a big blog entry of your own saying FUCK YOU CHUCK, I’M LEGIT NOW! AHAHAHA!

If you’re already in the process of doing that and not having good luck, well, keep fucking doing it. That’s what I did, that’s what we all did. (Oh, and if you didn’t work hard, if it just sort of happened for you, go die in a fire.)