Because I still feel a sort of hesitancy whenever I even think about calling myself one, here is more writing on the term “writer”!
I think that before the internet and blogging were things, the term “writer” was more closely associated with professional occupation; you know, someone who writes for a living and makes money and stuff, or at least tries to make money with his/her writing. Now, however, anyone can publish their work to be read by a bunch of strangers on the internet! I think that this freedom has generalized our idea of a writer.
I like to play bass guitar. But I would never refer to myself as a “musician.” A “bass player” maybe. In my head, the distinction between “musician,” or perhaps “bassist,” and “bass player” is creation. A musician is an artist, someone who preoccupies his/herself with making songs, symphonies, what have you. I, on the other hand, play as a hobby. I don’t record anything I play and I have no aspirations to be part of a band or to compose anything.
So, a “writer” is not simply anyone who writes. Most people are literate. A writer is someone who wants to accomplish something with writing, whether that is to be read/published, to affect anyone else somehow, or to simply create something special and have it exist. I think that at the root, the desire to create is the distinction between writer and not-writer.
I want to create, to affect, to make money (if only so I don’t need to do anything other than writing to live). So, yeah, I guess I am admitting that I now consider myself a writer.
