When people ask me what I do, I almost always say, “Full time programmer, part time writer.” Sometimes I add, “Looking to reverse those.” Whether or not I add the sassy secondary part, I always identify myself as a writer.<\/p>\n
Why do I do this?\u00a0 What does it mean, and how does it affect me and the people I’m interacting with?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I tell people I’m a writer because I’m proud of it.\u00a0 I want to talk about the stories I’ve written and by telling people that I’m writer, the next question from them is usually predictable.\u00a0 It’s either, “What do you write?” which is a question I like.\u00a0 Or it’s “Are you published?” or “Where can I get your books?” I’m not particularly happy with either of these questions.<\/p>\n
I tell people I’m a writer because that’s what I want to be doing.\u00a0 The more I tell other people, the more I reinforce to myself that yes, that is what I am, and no, I’m not an impostor.\u00a0 I’ve written two novels!\u00a0 And just tonight, I finished a novelette!\u00a0 And I’ve got short stories, too!\u00a0 And a blog!\u00a0 And flash fiction!<\/p>\n
I tell people I’m a writer because that’s the truth and I don’t want to hide it.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
When someone tells you that they’re a writer, they’re revealing to you that they are committed to a long form art style that probably won’t earn them nearly as much money or recognition as the time they’re investing.\u00a0 I read\u00a0Spin City<\/em> to Melissa as a way of getting a super fast edit in before submitting it to people, and I managed to read all 100,000 words to her over the course of 3 evenings.\u00a0 It took me about 7 months to write that draft, or about 30 years if you count the version of that story I started when I was 16.\u00a0 That’s a huge time investment into something that almost no one has read.\u00a0 Something that, statistically speaking, almost no one will read.<\/p>\n When someone tells you that they’re a writer, they’re telling you that they’re dedicated to a craft that isolates them a great deal of the time.\u00a0 Even when I’m doing word sprints with other writers, the actual writing is solitary work.\u00a0 Sure, there are some writers that are able to work in pairs and teams.\u00a0 Most novelists are working along, though.\u00a0 They might go to a write-in, socialize with other awkward word nerds, maybe tell some jokes or laugh at someone else’s.\u00a0 But when it’s time to do the work, they’re alone even when they’re in a crowded room.<\/p>\n When someone tells you that they are a writer, they’re telling you that they spend a lot of time building things out of metaphors and imagination, and they do that either by meticulously planning out something that doesn’t exist yet, or they’re going into a trance-like state, awake and alive and daydreaming while their fingers twitch people and places into word form.\u00a0 Scratch that.\u00a0 All writers do the daydreaming thing.\u00a0 The difference between a discovery writer and a heavy plotter is when they are lucid during the dream.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n When I identify as a writer, I’m exposing myself to questions and criticism I don’t necessarily want.\u00a0 I already mentioned a couple of questions I don’t want to answer at this stage of my career, mostly because those questions act as a spotlight, illuminating the part of my writer’s journey that isn’t complete.\u00a0 The part I have the most anxiety over.\u00a0 Yesterday, I started the post with the whole “Don’t quit your day job!” scene which I’ve experienced more often than I like.<\/p>\n Beyond those questions and pithy sayings, a number of people think that as a writer, I need their story ideas.\u00a0 I do not.\u00a0 I doubt any writer does.\u00a0 We like to be inspired, but we don’t like to write other people’s stories.\u00a0 No one needs to give me more work to do.\u00a0 What I need is time to work on the ideas I already have.<\/p>\n When I identify myself as a writer to another writer, the result can be complicated.\u00a0 Most of the time, it’s all good.\u00a0 There is a mutual understanding of what the other person has gone through and will go through, so it’s like finding a tribesman.\u00a0 We are writers, therefore, we can understand each other and be cool with one another.<\/p>\n Sometimes, however, a measuring contest is triggered.\u00a0 From other writers I’ve received judgement on how long I’ve been writing, the kind of stories I write, the amount of accomplishments I’ve achieved in the time I’ve been writing, the number of queries I’ve submitted and number rejections I’ve received.\u00a0 I’ve been judged over a slew of various subcategories such as marketing and social media presence.\u00a0 Writers are people.\u00a0 Some people are insecure assholes.\u00a0 The worst is when I’M the insecure asshole.\u00a0 I try not to judge or engage in the measuring contest.\u00a0 But like I said, writers are people and I’m a writer.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Anyone that writes is a writer.\u00a0 It doesn’t matter if you write long form or short form.\u00a0 It doesn’t matter if you write literary fiction, genre fiction, or non-fiction.\u00a0 It doesn’t matter if you write by hand or if you use a word processor, or if you dictate into a recording device and transpose later.\u00a0 It doesn’t matter if you’re published traditionally, independently, on Wattpad, or unpublished.\u00a0 If you write, you’re a writer, and you have every right to identify yourself as such.<\/p>\n You also have the right to keep it secret.\u00a0 Some people do and I don’t blame them for it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I identify as a writer.\u00a0 But you know what?\u00a0 I would really rather be able to identify myself as an author.<\/p>\n I’m still working on that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When people ask me what I do, I almost always say, “Full time programmer, part time writer.” Sometimes I add, “Looking to reverse those.” Whether or not I add the sassy secondary part, I always identify myself as a writer. Why do I do this?\u00a0 What does it mean, and how does it affect me […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1069"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1070,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1069\/revisions\/1070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Ramifications of Identifying as a Writer<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Who Should Identify as a Writer<\/strong><\/h3>\n