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What exactly is a real writer?



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Mon Jan 19, 2015 5:32 pm
TheArchon says...



I've been asking myself this for a while now. What is a real writer? What is the difference between a real writer and a casual hobbyest?

I think about writing all the time, yet I hardly ever do it. I come up with ideas and plans for the future, yet I never start. I guess I'm hesitant because the last story I wrote last week was TERRIBLE. It's almost like I see no point in writing if every word I write is going to be trash.

But I can't think like that anymore. I have to go from aspiring writer to real writer. But what exactly is a real writer?
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Mon Jan 19, 2015 7:22 pm
AttackOfTheFlash says...



You're alive, and you're writing. Therefore, you are a real writer. XD

Seriously though, everyone has their own opinions to this matter. Myself, I think that a "real" writer is a published author while hobbyists are the people who write "just because." (Then that would make probably half of the YWS users "hobbyists" because I don't know if any of us are published authors right now.)

And I totally agree with you about the whole "thinking and not actually doing." We all write stories that we consider awful (although I doubt yours is truly terrible!). Think about the first story you ever wrote and compare it to something recent. Is there improvement? I think if most writers stopped writing after they wrote a "terrible" story they would have never written a second one.

It's hard, but sometimes we just have to say, "Okay, I'm not going to let my fear of failing let me down!" I struggle with it myself, because I'm afraid of writing something that I think is good and then post it here and get jumped onto.

And for you (and the rest of us) to meet your goal of being a "real writer" we have to practice and accept critique. Because one day, you will be strolling down the aisles of Books A Million and stumble across your book. :) But to get there, we have to practice now. If you write a story you consider terrible, you know what to do to avoid it next time. Practice and experience!
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Mon Jan 19, 2015 9:20 pm
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Rosendorn says...



Writers write. The pretty universally accepted definition of a writer. So long as you get words out on the page and keep doing the physical act of writing, because writing is a verb, you are a writer.

Now, there are a few different qualities that separate those most likely to get published from those who just write for fun. I'm assuming those are the differences you're looking for. Just assume "writers" is "those who write for a living" in this list.

1- Writers don't wait for inspiration to strike. This is a big one, because professional writers are working on deadlines. They get words out on a page regardless of whether or not they want to, because they have to hit a submission deadline.

1.5- Writers have ways of getting words out on a page and ways to make it somewhat interesting even when they don't want to.

2- Writers are open to criticism and rewrite suggestions. Writing is, after all, rewriting. You have to be willing to hear what you can improve and what doesn't work.

3- Writers put themselves out there. They submit work to publishing houses, anthologies, literary magazines, ezines, newspapers, and any other places that accept their type of story. They have a folio of rejection letters as a result.

4- Writers keep writing even after they need a second folio just to hold all their rejection letters.

5- Writers seek out ways to improve. This is everything from self study and editing to getting others to read over work and taking their critiques. They have a body of work that, while still getting rejected, is steadily improving.

Hope that answers your question!
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Tue Jan 20, 2015 4:27 am
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Lefty says...



If you write, you're a writer. If you put words onto a paper and create a world or a story or a character-no matter how small or vague-that didn't exist before, you're a writer. Now, there is a difference between a writer, an author and a published author. A writer creates stories, an author has written a novel and a published author has published a novel, that they wrote, which started out as a story. Although, all of those still fall into the category of a writer. It doesn't matter if it's a casual hobby or a full-time job, if you write you're a writer.

As for hardly ever writing and being hesitant... I completely get it. I think about writing almost non stop. I feel like it's what I should be doing and when I write it's one of the only things I do where I don't feel like I should be doing something else. Yet, I don't do it that often. I worked pretty solid on a story of mine for a while and for some reason it got really frustrating and slow, like trudging through quicksand and when I tried to push through it I burned myself out. I have anxiety about it now, which I think is part of why I had the issue in the first place. Because I felt that the story was so important that I psyched myself out and I've been afraid to write ever since because I'm afraid that it will feel just as hard and frustrating when I try again. I'm slowly getting past it. But as for you feeling hesitant, you should definitely, definitely write another story. With every single story you write, you will become a little bit better of a writer than you were before, even if it doesn't feel like it. You'll learn something or understand something better or learn a new word from it. If you want to write, write. Don't worry about if it's bad or what people will think. Put your inner-critic aside and let the story flow. Why did you feel like your last story was bad? Figure that out and try to do something different next time. There's a quote that says "Don't forget - no one else sees the world the way you do, so no one else can tell the stories that you have to tell." So yes, there is a point to writing, even if you think it's trash. And here's a little secret... It's probably not trash. ;)

Best of luck fellow writer!
-Lefty
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Tue Jan 20, 2015 11:01 pm
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RacheDrache says...



Always the rebel, I'm going to the avoid "writers write" theory and just go with my honest answer minus any philosophizing.

"Real" writers, I'd say, have some kind of writing-based ambition. They want to share their writings with others, with people they don't know--publish, perhaps. Even make a career out of it. They write because something in them compels them to. They can't *not* write.

Hobby writers write just for fun, with no real intention of improving or sharing with anyone except friends or family maybe. They have no ambitions of publications or a career. It's truly just for fun and they don't need to write at all.

It has little to do with time commitment or how much you actually write. All about why you write.
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Wed Jan 21, 2015 6:49 pm
Tenyo says...



That depends on if you're being practical or philosophical. Technically, being a writer is to have a trade in writing, in which case getting one novel published doesn't count. Building a matchstick version of the Eifel tower doesn't make you a builder, though you would look for 'sites for builders' if you were researching your hobby.

In most professions this is the case. The thing with the arts is that since you can't philosophically measure success, then you can't actually say someone isn't a writer because they've never been published or completed a work, just as you can't say someone isn't a painter just because their only works are hanging on their bedroom walls.

As a hobbyist you can call yourself whatever you like, we relate to each other as writers. You wouldn't say you're a writer in a professional or academic environment because that implies that you do it for a living.
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something I have been thinking about ever since I saw the Super Mario Bros movie is how once I took a "what Nintendo character are you" quiz and I got Waluigi.
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