Being a writer - what’s that mean?
July 23rd, 2006 by Bill
I am battling the heat with a gin and tonic. You can read about this thrilling topic on my other blog, Crazy Ass Planet. However, the reason for this post …
I feel like M. Hulot without the beach. I am on vacation. No, I’ve no great plans beyond some dull domestic rubbish I want to accomplish with my condo … though I may decide to do something somewhat interesting with this time - go to the Cook Islands and get naked, ride broncin’ steer in southern Alberta. You never know. But here’s the thing …
No sooner does my brain register that I don’t have to think about work than I am writing - anything, everything. Most of it is rubbish, of course. Blog posts, like this one. I’ve always argued that writers are people who write. Period. And since I write for a living … ergo, I’m a writer. But I should amend that argument - add to it. I think a writer is also someone who thinks about writing - stories - all the time. And that’s certainly true of me.
I started a new story today. I was wandering through the bookstore down the street today when - bingo. “What if …” And a story was there. I immediately went home and started tapping out its beginnings, some notes, and so on.
However (there is always a “however”) … In the sense I think of the word “writer” there is no value ascribed to it. It doesn’t imply you are good or bad. I could be the worst writer in the world, I’d still be a writer. A bad one, mind you, but a writer.
Everyone who aspires to write wants to be good. But you don’t have to be in order to be a writer. To me, the term has more to do with a way of seeing, a way of thinking, a way of living. If you do it long enough, hopefully you get good. And I certainly hope I’m at least moderately good. Still, good or bad, I’m writer.
And this goes back to a cliche about writers, and what I always tell anyone who asks me about how to be a writer. “You want to be a writer? Write. You are what you do, not what you talk about.”
(Full discloser: This post was originally called “A gin and tonic moment.” Read into that what you will. But It does explain the post’s careening quality.)
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