What Makes You a Writer?

What exactly is a ‘real’ writer? Are you one? Am I one? Is anyone who wishes they were one? Let’s try to figure it out.

What actually makes someone a ‘real’ writer?

Is it having their name on a book cover?

Is it writing 5,000 words a day?

Is it having finished a draft of a book?

“No,” you snort disdainfully. “Obviously not, because you are going to tell me what it actually is!”

What if I told you that those things I just named above are what some people think makes them a ‘real’ writer?

By their definition, a ‘real’ writer is someone who does have their name on a cover, who does write 5,000 words a day, who does have a finished draft of their book.

To figure out what a ‘real’ writer is, we first must take a closer look at the actual word: writer.

This is Google’s definition of a writer.

Nothing about writing 5,000 words a day there.

In fact, it mostly just talks about the art of writing something or another. “books, stories, or articles”

I don’t even notice anything here about age, gender, or race.

Simply, a writer is someone who writes.

Just because you might be younger than other people who like to write doesn’t make you any less of a writer.

Just because you aren’t as good as a writer as other people doesn’t make you any less of a writer.

Just because you’re a boy or a girl, Canadian or Chinese, black or white, it doesn’t make you any less of a writer.

We all start somewhere. And that somewhere happens to be the bottom. We all had to struggle to climb to where we are today, fighting tooth and nail for every inch we covered, and still, we struggle to climb higher.

I know that some people will put down others who dream of being a writer, but at the moment aren’t so great, because it makes them feel better about their own writing. In my family, we’ve only ever been encouraged, and without it, we wouldn’t be as far along our journey as we are today.

By putting other people down, that person is ruining someone else’s dream and setting that poor person up for crippling self-doubt.

Don’t be that person. Even if you hate the hopeful writer, don’t tell them that you’re better than them, or even just imply it. Seriously, that makes you less of a writer.

A ‘real’ writer is someone who writes.

Let’s yell that one:

A ‘REAL’ WRITER IS SOMEONE WHO WRITES.

A ‘REAL’ WRITER IS SOMEONE WHO WRITES.

YOU are a REAL WRITER because you WRITE.

I am a REAL WRITER because I WRITE.

Write it on a note! Pin it on the wall! Yell it from the rooftops!

No one ever believes in themselves 24/7. I doubt myself and know you probably doubt yourself too at some point.

You are a writer because you write.

Go forth, and write more. You’ve got this.

This was a rant, but it seriously needed to be said. 😛

What did you think of it?

Do you agree with this?

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-Julia

Photo by Alejandro Escamilla on Unsplash