Writer Wanted

"In my experience, nothing is harder for the developing writer than overcoming his [or her] anxiety that he is fooling himself and cheating or embarrassing his family and friends."
-John Gardner, novelist and literary critic

How true. In fact, I have privately faced that question many times - am I fooling myself? Am I really a writer? Okay, I'm writing these words, so in that meager context alone I do qualify. Broadening it out a bit I have written stories and articles in my time and been paid for doing it (Never enough to quit a day job, that's for damn sure.). I even wrote an unpublished novel manuscript that deserves to remain unpublished. But still…a writer? Me?

It's not like I go around telling everyone I'm a writer. And I certainly don't delude myself by thinking that people are clamoring to read every inspired word I put down. Hardly. (Though to be totally honest what writer doesn't, by the very nature of what he or she does, namely committing words to paper, secretly crave just a little immortality?)

So when does one who writes become A WRITER?

Novelist James Michener once said something to the effect that a good writer should only be published after he's written a million words. A dramatic way of saying one has to put considerable time and effort into his craft in order to call himself a writer. No argument there. I have no idea how many words I've written in my lifetime, but by that measure I'd have to start copying the dictionary cover to cover just to get up to speed. (Right now the word count on this piece stands at about 225, so let's see – 1 million divided by 225 equals – never mind.)

Like it or not, in this age of social media and the internet it doesn't require a gifted skill set to see one's words in print. Not that that's always a bad thing. There's easy access for everyone like never before. I simply choose not to define a writing vocation by including tweets and Facebook postings.

I earned a Masters Degree in Creative Writing. Does that give me honest claim to calling myself a writer? By itself I would have to say no. Just as someone who gets a degree in Philosophy shouldn't go around telling everyone they're a Philosopher by trade. Have you seen the want ads lately? Now that's a tough field to break into.

Do you have to write every day to be a writer? Probably wouldn't hurt. But I don't. Sorry, e-mails and shopping lists don't count.

Do you have to have a book out there with your name on the cover? Do you have to have a literary agent? Your own website? A thick portfolio of published articles?

Or can you just be someone who can put decent sentences together in order to get a point across, every now and then nailing it with a touch of clarity and color?

I'll go with that last one for now. So, yes, I am a writer. Really.