Writing for Real August 5, 2008
Posted by Becca in Uncategorized.trackback
I’m never quite sure how to answer when people ask what I “do.” Of course, I know they’e really asking what I do for a living, so I usually take the easy way out and say I’m an adminisrative assistant, or perhaps I’ll say I’m an admin and a musician.
I never say I’m a writer.
Why is that? Since I began blogging a couple of years ago, I’ve logged nearly as many hours at this keyboard as I have at my office computer, and certainly more than I’ve spent at the ivories. I’ve written over 600 blog posts, completed two novellas, and dozens of poems and haiku.
But none of my friends (aside from all of you) and only a few of my family members have any idea that I’ve been doing all this scribbling in my spare time.
So why am I hoarding this little secret?
Is it because I don’t consider myself a “real writer?” What does it take to be a “real writer”?
In the past, it’s been easier for me to define myself as a musician, because people listen to my music. The reward of playing for an audience is immediate and intoxicating. You see their reaction in the smiles on their faces, you feel their involvement in the energy that pervades the room, you hear their enjoyement in the excited applause. I admit that I love that instant reaction, that feeling of providing the audience with something that entertains and enlightens them. But I’ve recently curtailed a lot of my musical activities, and for the first time in many years, I’m going into the fall season without any musical responsibilites other than my church choir. Cutting back on my musical involvement was deliberate, a way to give myself more time to pursue other activities- like writing.
The writer’s “product”~the essay, the story, the poem~is “consumed” somewhere else. The feedback is rarely immediate, and sometimes doesn’t come at all. We often must be content with a private sense of accomplishment, the satisfaction of a story well told or a metaphor perfectly placed. The “real world” rewards – recognition and financial success – are few and far between.
The internet, and specifically the experience of blogging, has changed this scenario. Suddenly our words can be read by someone, somewhere, who might find them meaningful. However, there are those who don’t consider blogging “real writing,” decrying it is nothing more than glorified journal keeping. Personally, I’m thrilled that the internet has provided writers like us with a place to share our stories, our perspective, our experiences, and ~even more exciting~ to engage in a dialogue with other writers. At least in this space, I find myself much more comfortable saying that I am a writer.
Perhaps, some day, I’ll be able to say it to the rest of the world as well.
How about you? Do you consider yourself a writer? Do you think blogging is “real writing?” What does it take to be a “real writer”?
I have just recently started calling myself a writer. I written articles for the local paper for 12 years, but always considered my “main” job as an RN my “real job”. However, writing has started to consume more and more of my life – and I don’t consider it work. Writing is what I do for a living – it’s what makes me, me.
Yes, I do consider blogging as writing! Blogging is the main reason I now call myself a writer. If it wasn’t for the hours I spend at my keyboard updating several blogs, I’d probably lose my mind!
To me, a writer writes – and that’s what I do! So I think a writer should spend part of the day honing their craft and then trying to get it out into the world for others to read. At least, that’s my hope with the writing I do. I don’t write to be famous or publish lots of books (although I can’t wait to get that first one published), I write because if I didn’t, I think my mind would explode.
Have your novellas been published, because I would love to read them! I’m always interested in reading other people’s works.
PS: I’m starting a new blog just for my creative writing. Although I already have several blogs, none of them really specialize in creative writing. Although there is only one post – today’s – please feel free to visit me at: http://mymuseandme.blogspot.com.
Oh, and keep up the good work; I love all the advice and inspiration I get from this site!
Well, I like to write. If earning money from my writing is what it takes to be “real,” though, then I’m definitely not a real writer, nowhere near it. Then again, nobody pays me to be a wife or mother, either, at least not directly. I just do the work and earn the title. I think it works the same way with writing.
Of course blogging is real writing. What maroon suggests otherwise? Good grief!
Writers write.
Great prompt! Thanks so much!
Being true to my beliefs, values and passions make my journey in blogosphere meaningful and fulfilling. I feel so good when sharing and hearing the others’, and I think it gives me a good opportunity to meet different perspectives as well as different ways of thinkings.
I do not think of myself a writer yet. Btw, my background is quite different one. However I know that I try my best as much as I can. Those compliments and bravo’s that I picked till today since I started blogging is quite wonderful and over my expectations, surprised me and I just can not stop sharing. I appreciate!
This is my first visit to your journal, I liked the inside, and I’d like to stop by later.
All the Best.
I loved this. It gave me a excuse to put on my thinking caps!
http://firmlyrooted.blogspot.com/2008/08/defining-writer.html
I love the things you conjure up for us Becca … this and last week especially … but … I’m living up to my procrastinator image and still haven’t got my pieces on my blog, or out of my head yet … so typical … I’ll get back to you shortly
My post for today is up here:
http://mizwrites.wordpress.com/2008/08/06/wow-writing-for-real/
You always make me think out my answers through writing, Becca. So, thanks! LOL.
MizB
I’m now going to sit down and write something on this: like you I’m too shy (???!!) to tell people I’m a writer, I always tell them my dayjob however much I’d like to do it the other way round! I definitely consider blogging to be writing: it is one fantastic way to keep your pencil sharp. Once more I’m buried in the depths of Wales and today I have travelled some 100 miles up and down valleys to interview people in different authorities – but I’m certainly going to conjure up something tonight, over my snack in the bar or in my room lateron
Many thanks for this….
Writers write. If you’re writing, you’re a writer.
I like your prompts and hopefully they will get me motivated enough to write continuously. Here is my post.
http://thethingsweread.blogspot.com/2008/08/write-on-wednesday.html
Boy, does this one touch home! I resonate with it both as a writer and an artist. And it sounds like I actually called myself those names just now!
So, after pondering for a bit…stop by the Gypsy and see what I came up with!
http://themarmeladegypsy.blogspot.com/2008/08/write-on-wednesday-writing-for-real.html
happy thursday!…somehow yesterday got crazy and though I wrote my wow entry at work, I only just got to download it. I am here, at http://westcobich.wordpress.com/
And now, will take time with coffee and all the above comments to jumpstart the morning!
I love your reflections on these topics!
http://writing.rebeccareid.com/2008/08/real-writing/
You are a writer, Becca!
I am just a wee bit late. Thanks for the prompt – your questions keep me awake at night!
http://qugrainne.com/2008/08/11/write-on-wednesday-um-just-a-wee-bit-late/
I think it comes harder for writer’s of fiction to put enough value on their work to consider themselves writers. I always wrote non-ficiton, first covering news and writing features for newspapers and then doing freelance travel and regional articles for magazines. I think it’s easier to get non-fiction published, and once one gets paid money for what they write, it becomes much easier to consider oneself a writer.
My problem is that I have yet to regain the spark for writing that I once had. I have numerous ideas for articles I could try to sell, but the closest I come to writing is on my blog. I’m hoping that eventually I’ll find the spark that gets me going again.
Meant to say ‘a bit late’ … but I’ve done it … caught up two weeks … Thanks Becca.
I think the problem is that people ask the question “what do you do” when they want to know “what do you do for a living”. I think “what do you do” in a more everyday sense is a much more interesting question, and tells me much more about a person, or allows me to tell them much more about themselves.
And blogging has opened new worlds to me in writing terms… you might be interested in a recent post of mine about exactly what it has become for me.
I wish it were as simple for me as “I’m a writer”. For me it’s “I’m a …. and a …. and a ….. and I write.” I guess I get caught up in the ‘publishing’ thing…. clearly not what Lamott talks about in Bird by Bird. I continue to work on it. Perhaps someday…
This is a great post Becca and one that I need to think about. I definitely write from my own experiences, re-interpreted yes (see on of my latest blog here http://51stories.wordpress.com/2008/11/15/departure-july-1980/
which is a short story. But not in essay form. So I’ll do what you challenge us to do but I need some time to think about it. Well, that means that once more my response will not appear until a few days later. I’m on my way to Swansea now with a full day’s pitch tomorrow, but I should be able to do something on the way back! Meanwhile, I’ll think.
Yes, Carol Oates is one of my favourites too!