When did you start calling yourself a writer?

[Azura Skye]

Do you call yourself a writer? At what point in your writing "career" did you start calling yourself a writer? I'm curious to know when and if there was a definitive moment that you felt you could say "I'm a writer" or if it was just something you said all along.

[maestrowork]

I considered myself a writer for a long time now. But I felt like I could really tell someone "I'm a writer" when I got my first paying gig.

[ChunkyC]

I have to echo Maestro. I truly felt like a writer for the first time when I first saw my byline in the local paper. Even now over three years later, I still feel a thrill of excitement when I say it.

[Jamesaritchie]

I really didn't think of myself as a writer until I'd sold three short stories and a novel. This happened within a few months of starting, but even then I wasn't really comfortable telling anyone I was a writer until I was selling on a regular basis.

[Oklahoma Wolf]

For me, it was when I realized I could think of doing nothing else with my future. That was about January 1996 or so. About that time I also realized I was actually spending more time thinking of story ideas than any other activity I did in the course of the day.

I still have trouble calling myself a writer in front of other people though - I constantly worry about not living up to their expectations if they know of my obsession. So, most of the time I mention my church secretary job first.

[Azura Skye]

If you mention you're a writer to others do some of them smirk?:lol

[wurdwise]

Even better than smirk, say something like my sister in law, who I love by the way, said at Christmas when I told her I was writing a novel, "Oh, I've always wanted to do that! I should too, I could just pound it out at work during my lunch breaks!"

I smiled sweetly and replied, "Yeah, you probably could." :rollin

[mr mistook]

I call myself and artist, because I think of that as a lifestyle rather than a career. As an artist, I write & record music, I draw, and I write.

If and when my novel is published, I'll call myself a writer. Until then, I'm an artist working on his first novel.

[Stace001]

I called myself a writer the day I finished my first novel. I'm still waiting for it to be published, and I'm half way through my second novel, but that was it for me.

[Writing Again]

The only times I've ever called myself a writer was when I was using a press pass or seeking an interview.

When I was young writing was considered a career only for pantywaists -- Real men were construction workers who watched football, drank beer, and belched.

When it was discovered I had been published -- The first time I was naive and stupid enough to be proud and brag about it -- People either wanted to borrow money (Thinking I was now rich) or they condemned me for writing genre fiction that was cheap trash designed only to lower the moral fiber of America.

Nowadays I pretty much keep my business to myself.

[Mya Bell]

I've been writing for almost as long as I've been reading and yet I never thought of myself as "a writer" until I had numerous articles, stories, and books in print.

I'm not sure what exactly caused the change in my thinking. I was writing and getting paid for writing and yet... I don't think I really thought of myself as a writer until the day I started penning my novel--the day I began to write what I had wanted to write all along--book-length fiction.

Now I feel comfortable calling myself a writer around other people, although, when I'm by myself, I don't think of myself so much as a writer as someone who's trying to learn and get as much out of writing as I can.

--- Mya Bell

[Coco82]

I privately consider myself one, although don't say it yet. If I were published now it'd be a different story.

[Azura Skye]

I haven't been able to say it to myself or to anyone else. I consider myself someone who writes or is learning to write but I can't yet call myself a writer. Hmmm, odd.

[katdad]

I've written all my life, from when I was a kid.

But "a writer"?

I suppose it was when I first got published, and then later got paid.

But when some objective editor or publisher decides your writing is sufficiently good to print, even if you don't get paid, it's what makes you a "writer", as I see it.

[wurdwise]

Hey there, Mya! Good to see you here, I hope you stick around. What a great addition to this group!

I think I called myself a writer the day I made up some business cards with my name and Freelane Writer as my title, a spiffy little card I needed to feel legitimate when I went to interview a lady in a nursing home for an article I was writing.

I have three poems published, but that was over 10 years ago, and it was more dabbling than anything, and I was only paid in copies.

I don't think I will really consider myself a writer until I have an actual article published, maybe even not till I get a check for one.

[Gala]

Long after I'd been published and paid. It was when I crossed over to writing full time, and asked my then publisher what I should say when people ask what I do.

"Tell them you're a writer."

Seems silly now, it was so obvious. At the time I had the ideas a writer was Steinbeck or King or Roth or a Michaelangelo of the art. I'm not that.

[mistri]

I will if I sell any fiction. Right now my only sale was a non-fiction book, and I do more editing than writing.

I think it in my head, though :)

[clotje]

Hmmm, even though I've finished the first draft of my thriller and am researching the next one I still wouldn't call myself a writer, maybe I will if I get published.
Although it's nice that a friend, who is an avid fan of my writing, called me a writer last week. :D

BTW hi Mya, nice to see you here! :D

[ElizabethJames]

We have the good fortune of 20 years of public relations writing, so our business cards have always said writer, or senior writer or something like that. That has made it easy to say we're a writer now that we're only working part time and spending the rest of our life obsessing over a couple of novels.

But then there's the question people ask: Have I read anything you've written?

Our answer is always the same. Not yet.

[vstrauss]

About two-thirds of the way through my fourth novel. I'd sold each of the previous three, but it wasn't till then that I really committed myself to seriously pursuing a writing career.

- Victoria

[Gala]

<blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>But then there's the question people ask: Have I read anything you've written?<hr></blockquote>
I say, "I don't know—have you?" if my meter detects bs.

Otherwise, "If you haven't you should..." along those lines.

[Euan Harvey]

Real men were construction workers who watched football, drank beer, and belched.
Whaddaya mean were?

I think when (or if) writing is my job, then I'll call myself a writer. Otherwise, it seems (IMHO) to be a bit pretentious.

[arkady]

I've never identified myself as a "writer," even though my newspaper articles (local) are published regularly. I'll consider myself a "writer" when I finally stop getting rejection slips for my novel.

Oddly enough, though, as soon as other people find out I've written a novel -- published or not -- they start calling me a "writer."

[STORMTURNER]

I was in the 4th grade. I wrote my first song, which I look back on with embarrassment. As I lived a little and loved a little more and became more involved in the world around me I soon evolved as a "professional" writer and was published when I was a senior in high school. That's when others "saw" me as a writer.

[Azura Skye]

Just to continue the discussion further: do any of you feel you need to be published in order to call yourself a writer?

[maestrowork]

We've had that discussion many times. No clear concensus.

To some people, you're a writer when you write. To some people, "writer" means "professional writer" which means you get paid to write. To some people "writer" and "author" mean two different things... they're all up for interpretation.

I think deep down in your heart you know whether you're a "writer" or not, no matter what your individual interpretation of the word is.

[STORMTURNER]

Well I think to consider yourself a professional writer, you should be either paid and/or published. But to consider yourself a writer, I think, you must love doing it without being published and/or paid and do it more than you do anything else.

[stormie267]

Because I am a writer. Several years ago, when I decided that this was what I wanted to do and started submitting my work, that was when I said "writer." I was lucky though. (Well, part luck, mostly sweat.) I got my first essay published and a check within two months. I haven't looked back since.

But--yes, I have met people, in fact one is a former friend, who laughed, like it was some pipe-dream. I have met others who ask how many books I have written, not realizing that being a writer doesn't necessarily mean churning out two books a year. (I only have one book out there now, but many essays and articles and some short stories have been published.)

By the way, welcome Mya Bell! You've helped me on another writer board.

[aka eraser]

At the risk of being deemed immodest, I'm going to post a link to a glossary of writing-related terms that Victoria Strauss and I worked on. Various types of "writer" are defined. (By the way, there will be additions to the list in a few days, courtesy of Uncle Jim and others.)

www.frankbaron.com/writersglossary.htm (http://www.frankbaron.com/writersglossary.htm)

[Azura Skye]

Thanks, that's a great site.

[STORMTURNER]

Entertaining and brilliant -- if at all possible to be both at the same time.

[STORMTURNER]

BTW, a brilliant writer once wrote:

A writer is one who records his thoughts on canvas so that the world will learn how to think.

Edgar Allen Poe?
Viceleas Colte'? (spelling)
Desasio Much?

Can't remember.

[twoeyesgrn]

I've never called myself a writer, although I've been writing off and on since I was twelve. Then again, I rarely talk about my writing to anyone (except places like this). I think I'll call myself a writer when I can quit my day job.

[triceretops]

Tough question.

I guess I've published everything but a screen play and a novel, and have had some financial success as a result So I've always been an author. But when I told people that I was a book author, 99% of them did not believe me. That was until they secretly scouted the libraries and found my titles. Then they were stunned, but I never, ever took advantage of that.

I've always been an author. But until I MAKE A LIVING at writing, EXCLUSIVELY, I feel I'm not a true writer, in that sense. Perhaps my perception is wrong. If I were a senior tech writer for FMC, I would say that I was a writer because it represents my vocation. But, as a freelancer, I hesitate to call myself a true writer, in that sense.

Tri

[drgnlvrljh]

I don't come out and call myself "A Writer", I tell people I write. I think I can legitamately call myself A Writer, when I become published, and An Author, when I can quit my night job ;)

[novelator]

I knew I was a writer when I realized I had an office supply fetish that dated back to childhood.

:rollin

Mari

[tjosban]

I am only 22 and I have had an office supply fetish for as long as I can remember, lol. What are the chances? How many other people have an odd attachment to office supplies? I have them everywhere.
:lol

[drgnlvrljh]

I knew I was a writer when I realized I had an office supply fetish that dated back to childhood.

You mean not everyone has that fetish? :eek

[CindyBidar]

Book stores and office supply stores. They're my Disneyland. It's so nice to hang out with people who understand that. :D

[Azura Skye]

Add another to the list of office supply store fetish. Oh and art supply stores get me all goose pimply.:rollin

[stormie267]

Besides loving office supply stores, I actually asked for a hardcover dictionary and thesaurus for Christmas. Two of the best gifts I ever received. :rolleyes

[katdad]

Do you call yourself a writer?
I put my hand on a rock, looked up into the sky, and declared, "I am a writer!"

(courtesy of Mel Brooks)

Thinking about this further since my previous posting, I'd say this: When you get paid.

I know that sounds clinical but that is my break point. There three principal milestones, I think, in this order:

1- When you get published in a print venue.
2- When you get paid for your writing.
3- When you make a living as a writer.

[allion]

Ooh...office supplies...yum!

It is hard to resist when Staples has their clearance table set up at this time of year with all sorts of goodies reduced.

Must...resist...temptation...!

[novelator]

You know, it's funny, but a writer friend and I were discussing our fetishes with office supplies and wondered if that was the mark of a true writer.

Look at the responses--I'd say so...:D

Love office supplies, reams of paper...mmmmmm

Mari