I've been wondering what makes a writer. Obviously anybody who writes, but what makes YOU a writer? When did you first feel that moment of I'm A Writer. Was it the first time you won a contest? Got a good crit from someone you admire? Decide to go the distance, do the research and work and publish or else? Was it when you finished your first book? First time you Beta read or received an ARC? Landed an agent or publisher? First time you held that beautiful book with your name on it? Or maybe the first Royalty check?
Or is being a writer a process? Each book is different and we have to find new ways to write, are we just always becoming writers? A staircase, with each step leading us closer but where we never reach the top because perfection is unattainable?
What is it for you?
Although I have gradually become a much better writer, the feeling where I actually considered myself a writer was much quicker. It came when I first decided that I wanted to do this professionally, and that I'd work and work and work until I got there. It was more of a flip-the-switch moment.
ReplyDeleteThat's pretty cool. Then you had that assurance whenever the times got hard. Sounds like a great way to do it.
ReplyDeleteI guess it's too easy to answer that I've always been a writer. It's weird - Diana talks about how even if there was no paper or pen and she'd lived 2,000 years ago, she'd have been the village storyteller. I'm not sure that's me. But I get this itch, this urge, this compulsion, and I have to explore stories and characters and emotions through pen and paper.
ReplyDeleteAnd I must copy edit [bg]
Depends on the day. Sometimes I feel like a total poser. But other times I feel like I have a grasp on this thing I'm trying do and that something may come of it.
ReplyDeleteDeniz, I've been a storyteller a few times when I wasn't writing much. Funny enough some of the stories I made up and told people because picture book ideas. If only I knew anything about writing picture books.
ReplyDeleteRuth, I know that back and forth. Ignore the poser days and soon there will be more and more of the other kind.
ReplyDeleteI called myself a writer the first time I ever finished a piece. I'd started many stories, but was never brave enough to stay with them 'til the end. Once I did, THEN I was a writer!
ReplyDeleteYea, that's a BIG moment.
ReplyDeleteOoh, I wonder how you would go about finding an illustrator?
ReplyDeleteWell, usually you just submit it and the publisher finds an illustrator. Kinda like when they make your cover and title. Illustrators submit portfolios to publishers just as writers submit manuscripts.
ReplyDelete