When Can you Call Yourself a Writer?

It’s not really about money, is it?

When do you get to consider yourself a writer? I read an article the other day where the author identified herself as a writer, which seemed obvious since she wrote the article, but then she went on to say that long before she had ever published anything, she journaled every day and she considered herself to be a writer then, too.

Literal person that I sometimes am, I started my mental wool gathering on this.

The Oxford dictionary defines a writer as “a person who has written a particular text,” or “a person who writes books, stories, or articles as a job or regular occupation.”

So, are you only a writer when it is your “regular occupation”? Occupation sounds a bit utilitarian, doesn’t it? Let’s define “occupation.” Is that something that consumes the majority of your time, or is it something you get paid for? Consulting the Oxford dictionary again, “occupation” is “a job or profession.”

So, the most literal definition of a writer seems to be a person who writes books, stories, or articles as a job or profession.

By this definition that discounts anyone as a writer who does not earn the majority of their income by writing. This eliminates a great many of us, doesn’t it?

If you publish your own blog, by this definition, you are not technically a writer, unless that blog pays your bills.

Are you a writer if you write in your journal every day: poems, thoughts, stories?

Are you a writer once you’ve published a story in a print or digital publication?

I’ve had one book published by a respected academic press, and it is sold on their website, on Amazon, and in most bookstores. I receive annual royalties from this book, but it is certainly not enough to make a living. My royalties aren’t even enough to pay my electric bill. Am I not a writer, then?

Perhaps this is one of those questions that the answer is so subjective we can never get to a true meeting of the minds. Surely the person who writes short stories or poetry but has never published a word of it, considers himself to be a writer. You labor over those sentences, those words, polishing your work like a diamond in the rough, until they are perfect. They’ve never been published because you’ve never shared them, or tried to publish them. You write for your own enjoyment, your own catharsis, even. Aren’t you a writer?

And what of that blogger who has a successful, monetized blog as a side hustle, who publishes every single day, sometimes multiple times a day. Isn’t he a writer?

I believe you are a writer when you write. When you feel like a writer, when you work at your craft, you are a writer. You have something to say and you say it. Whether your work is published or not, whether you make money from it or not, you’re a writer when you create something with your words. If you transport your reader to another place, teach them something, or evoke an emotion from your reader, you are a writer.

The best writing is seldom about the money. It’s about the process and the journey. Writing is an intensely personal thing that you sometimes choose to share with the world. At least, that’s what the best writing is, anyway.