I recently had an interesting discussion with a good writer-friend of mine. She’s a younger writer, still in her teens, and has been influenced by friends and relatives to doubt her own ability to succeed as a writer. This despite already winning writing contests, money and publications more than once before even reaching the end of her senior year of high school. The negativism of those around her has affected her ambition to write for a living the way Tenuate affects appetite: it’s suppressed it.
What I told her in response is the same thing I would tell anyone being discouraged by others about their writing ambitions. Here is a rough recreation of our exchange.
“Do you actually write, or do you just talk about wanting to.”
“No, I’ve written a lot of things.”
“Do you produce new pages on a weekly basis?”
“Yes.”
“Do you write things to completion?”
“Yes.”
“Have you had anything published?”
“Yes. And paid for it, too! More than once.”
Prior to this exchange, when talking to these naysayers, she constantly referred to herself by saying she “wants to be a writer.” I told her to stop apologizing and hedging.
“Next time, tell whoever is asking the truth. You ARE a writer. You’re there already.”
When she objected to being so bold, I repeated everything she’d just told me.
“You write instead of just talking about it. You produce new pages every week. You write to completion. You’ve been published. You’ve even been paid and won contests. You are a writer already. That’s what writers do. You might be just starting your journey, but you’re on the path. You are a writer. Get used to it.”
That’s all being a writer is, really. To already be there before the end of a high school education gives her a jump start on most. But anyone who fulfills that criteria IS a writer, whether they’re drawing a $50 prize here and there, getting paid for writing blog entries, or getting million-dollar book deals from Simon and Schuster. The only difference is in the scale of success, and if one keeps at it, even that will come with time.
