Monday Madness: How to Tell if You're a Writer

I've been thinking a lot lately about what makes a writer, and if I even qualify as one anymore. I feel like I've been slacking. Sure, I've never been one of those industrious people who write every day. I don't have word goals or scene goals or anything like that. I'm not even published yet (though that will be remedied soon). I don't feel like I'm vastly talented or even "better" than any other writer. I still feel like I need to improve. Like I have a lot to learn. I don't put my work out there as much as I used to. Not for critique and not for potential publication. So what gives me the right to call myself a writer?

What gives me the right to give advice to other writers, either? Yes, I have a bachelor's degree in creative writing, but I'm not expert. Heck, I don't even know what I'm doing most of the time. I don't have structures or guidelines that I follow. I just sit down and write. What comes, comes. And sometimes it doesn't.

My imagination isn't the best. Sometimes I come up with ideas that are good, but I still get that niggling feeling that no idea I have is good enough or original enough. Sometimes I think that all that comes from me is garbage.

But I still call myself a writer.

I'm a writer because I have to write. What I write might not be publishable. It might not be original or amazing or even legible. But, still, I have to write it. I have to create characters. I have to tell their stories. Because if I don't I'm halfway convinced that they'll bore out of my skull themselves.

I write because I like to pretend. I like to build and breathe life into places that never were, but could be. I write because if I don't, there's this strange, urgent pressure that builds inside of me until I think I might explode.

If you're a writer, you probably know what I'm talking about. But even if you don't, that doesn't mean you're not a writer...that just means you're a different kind. As long as you feel it in your soul, beneath your skin, as long as you have ONE story to tell--you're a writer.

You might not be a bestseller novelist. You might not be published at all. You might have just finished the rough draft of your first story, but you're still a writer. You might not have written three words since November, but you're still a writer.

It's not a profession. It's a calling. And people will mock you (kindly or cruelly) for daring to write, but you will write all the same. Because you have no other option.

That's how you know you're a writer.

Spread the love, not the hate

A little while back, I posted a chapter of Dragon Queen on the Writer's Digest SF/F forum and got a snarky comment about a particular bit of dialogue harkening Twilight. The line was: "There's something about you that calls to me. That pulls me in. I wish I knew why". (Drake to Jade)

At the time, I was appalled. Like a lot of other writers on the forum, Stephenie Meyers' teen vamp novels were not on my list of books to emulate. First off, because I was not going for the same audience and secondly, well, I just didn't find the story all that fabulous. (Wait! Don't throw the tomatoes yet, please!) So, the line got scratched and reworded and we went on a rant about the Twilight books. (Sorry, Ms. Meyers.)

Well, maybe because I'm becoming more heart and less brain lately, but I've started feeling a little sorry for Ms. Meyers. After all, she's probably a lot like me: a woman who thought of a story and wrote it because she felt the need to. And, so, after reading another Twilight-bash on one of the blogs I follow, my heartstrings twanged a little bit, and I thought I would go on to find out what Ms. Meyers and her vampire-romances are really about.

I went to her official website and read her post on how Twilight came to be, and it just kept getting more and more familiar. By the end, this woman could have been the me of an alternate universe (except that I have yet to write any teen vampire romances--or get published). She was inspired by a dream and from there it just controlled her. She was compelled to write the story and never dreamed that it was anything that would be published. But, voila, it was, and it was an irrefutable success (no matter what you think). 

Now, I will admit that, yes, I own all of the Twilight series. Two in hardcover. I enjoyed the first book and the second, but was disappointed by the next two (though they did have their good moments). I have friends who L.O.V.E. the books, and appreciate them more than I can, and I'm happy that they can. There are certainly elements in there of good storytelling, I won't deny. 

However, I'm looking at her books through the eyes of a writer, and there are things about the books that just sort of fall flat (as a lot of writers will agree). Still, that's not the point of this post. The point is that when any writer looks at the success of another and feels that the success is the result of an overrated product, he/she can quickly become the green-eyed monster and start spewing filth about the author--and soon he/she loses sight of the fact that the author was or is just like them. A person trying to tell a story. Is it a great story? Depends on the reader. But it is still a story, and I believe that all stories are worth telling and all writers are worth encouraging.

So, please, people, give Ms. Meyers a break and remember that she is probably more like you than you would like to believe.