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Jun. 5th, 2009 09:29 amWhat does it mean to call yourself a writer?
It is a subject of great interest to new writers trying to establish an identity, unpublished writers, and anyone else with a dream to see their words on the page.
Are you a writer when another writer says you are? Is it when you first pay a bill with a check from a sale? When do you feel comfortable claiming the identity? Why is the identity so important?
Do painters wonder so much about their status as painters? Do dancers worry about their dancer credibility?
I like to think of a writer being a spiritual boxer.
You have to train for endurance. You have to spend hours and hours each day in front of the blank screen, the white page, and work. Writing is work. It involves mental sweat and spiritual pain. You have to write when your friends are out having a good time. You have to write when you friends are at the beach. It involves sacrifice.
And just like a boxer, you have to train to take blows. Every rejection is a blow. Every negative review is another jab. And like a boxer, you have to endure. This is the hardest part. This is where many drop out. This is my own weakness. You have to train yourself to withstand such things.
Painters, dancers, and other visual medium artists have an easier time. It is less investment for their audience to enjoy their work. A writer has a lonely time in the black sending out his words into the void, hoping some of them will stick. Just this morning, I received two more blows. And yet, even as I started to feel a bit sad, another opportunity revealed itself.
It isn’t easy. It isn’t supposed to be easy. A painting, good or bad, is always a painting. A story is not really a story until it has been told. So many of our stories die still-born until we earn our chops.
I think that is why so many get frustrated and angry with each other. I think that is why those taking the blows are angry at those that do not and still call themselves writer. I think that the reason the identity is so important to us. It gets us through the bad times. It strengthens our self worth and tells us that we’re not wasting time.
And that’s why I think writers are so protective of the writer identity.
And now back to the essay about hot tattooed women on roller-skates….
It is a subject of great interest to new writers trying to establish an identity, unpublished writers, and anyone else with a dream to see their words on the page.
Are you a writer when another writer says you are? Is it when you first pay a bill with a check from a sale? When do you feel comfortable claiming the identity? Why is the identity so important?
Do painters wonder so much about their status as painters? Do dancers worry about their dancer credibility?
I like to think of a writer being a spiritual boxer.
You have to train for endurance. You have to spend hours and hours each day in front of the blank screen, the white page, and work. Writing is work. It involves mental sweat and spiritual pain. You have to write when your friends are out having a good time. You have to write when you friends are at the beach. It involves sacrifice.
And just like a boxer, you have to train to take blows. Every rejection is a blow. Every negative review is another jab. And like a boxer, you have to endure. This is the hardest part. This is where many drop out. This is my own weakness. You have to train yourself to withstand such things.
Painters, dancers, and other visual medium artists have an easier time. It is less investment for their audience to enjoy their work. A writer has a lonely time in the black sending out his words into the void, hoping some of them will stick. Just this morning, I received two more blows. And yet, even as I started to feel a bit sad, another opportunity revealed itself.
It isn’t easy. It isn’t supposed to be easy. A painting, good or bad, is always a painting. A story is not really a story until it has been told. So many of our stories die still-born until we earn our chops.
I think that is why so many get frustrated and angry with each other. I think that is why those taking the blows are angry at those that do not and still call themselves writer. I think that the reason the identity is so important to us. It gets us through the bad times. It strengthens our self worth and tells us that we’re not wasting time.
And that’s why I think writers are so protective of the writer identity.
And now back to the essay about hot tattooed women on roller-skates….