What makes you a writer?
Even since I was a little girl with my nose stuck in a book, I’ve wanted to be a writer. And I keep saying that I “want” to be a writer, even though I write every day. I write blog posts, tweets, letters. I write about the things that inspire me, that put a smile on my face, that frustrate the heck out of me.
So why is it so hard to say that I am a writer? People ask me all the time what I’m doing in Nice. I answer that I’m studying French, waitressing, getting a tan. Mention my journalism degree, and people automatically assume that I aspire to write for a newspaper one day. Um, not exactly.
I’m hesitant about sharing my blog with people in my “offline” life, about claiming to be a writer. Plenty of my non-techie friends don’t get what I’m doing, and strangers are even more likely to misinterpret what I do. I feel like the term “blogger” is a mixed bag: blogs run the gamut from the equivalent of an online diary to a full-blown, profitable enterprise. Being so ingrained in a community obsessed with social media, it’s sometimes difficult to remember that not everyone realizes that a “tweet” isn’t just the sound a bird makes or that “stumbling” isn’t when you trip over a step.
Obviously, not everyone gets blogging. And the term “writer” isn’t much clearer. But, to me, being a writer assumes that there are people, other than just your mom, who want to read your work. Writers write books, articles, stories. Writers have been around way longer than bloggers, lending the term a bit of credibility.
When I say I want to be a writer, I dream of the day where I’m making money for my work. Perhaps the day I submit a book proposal, see an article I wrote in a print magazine, can put “writer” as my profession on my taxes.
Maybe that day will come, maybe it won’t. Until then, I’m working on building up the courage to tell people that I am a writer. Because I am, right?
To all the travel bloggers/freelance writers/people who put words on a page for a living: how do describe what you do?
