What's a "real" writer?

and how do you know if you are one?

What’s the definition of a real writer?

This is perhaps the most elusive concept in the writing life to define. So much agony surrounds the desire to join the real writer club.

In order to determine if they are in or excluded from the real writer club, people make giant lists of what they need to do, be, or have in order to qualify.

Years of hearing these lists have allowed me to collect a sample of these requirements.
According to people I’ve asked,

You may call yourself a real writer if you:

• Have a published book

• Have a book published by a mainstream publisher

• Get a certain dollar amount advance

• Write work that is good¹

• Have a certain number of pieces (or books) published

• Are published by certain magazines or other well-known outlets

• Have a book for sale in bookshops

• Have a book for sale in airport bookshops²

• Get an MFA

• Win a literary award

• Have written a book the average person at a party has heard of

• Earn your entire living from writing books with no financial struggle

• Get up at dawn every day and do absolutely nothing all day but write, foregoing even eating and bathing

The moving target

Not once, I might add, do these qualification lists include things like “enjoy and regularly pursue writing” or “read tons of books and have ideas of some you’d like to write yourself.” Also, it’s interesting how many people mention publication of books as a marker, when we already have a separate word for someone who’s published a book: an author.

In addition, despite how specific the items on the list above are, once checking one of them off, a new one almost always appears in its place and confirms that you are not yet actually a real writer.

For example: having a published book, and one that appears in bookshops, can be negated if you attend a party and the person you speak to has never heard of it. Or having written and published a book people have heard of can get destroyed by its being the only book you’ve written in the past period. (Side note: Does anyone ever accuse Harper Lee of not being a real writer, having just published To Kill a Mockingbird while she was alive?)

This moving target element of achieving “real” writer status is our first sign that there is something very wrong with defining it. In fact, there is no way to define the real writer at all, given that it’s a concept invented by the inner critic to shut us down.

Why does this matter?

If the concept of the real writer is bullshit, why does it persist?

Most people who dream of writing worry that they aren’t qualified to do so. Other professions require training. After all, why should someone think they can just waltz in and start writing?

While this shows respect for writing, it also puts a huge fence around it. Writing an essay about an experience you’ve had is not the same as doing amateur surgery. Putting a story down on paper that’s been kicking around in your mind for ages is not the same as going to court as someone’s lawyer without ever having studied law.

Becoming a real writer is like the Velveteen Rabbit becoming real

While heartbreaking, this story has more to tell us about the creative life than you know. The lovely stuffed bunny becomes a real rabbit by getting dirty with the little boy, by participating in life, dropped on the floor and hugged and by engaging in the experience of being alive.

As writers, we become more and more real the more we write. We don’t become real by sitting on the shelf, hoping one day someone will pick us up and label us real. We have to pick up a pen and write things, no matter how good or bad they appear. It’s the writing that makes us real, not what anyone else says about it.

If we are waiting for permission to write anything in the first place, hoping that we can begin already able to write with great skill and success, we won’t attain either.

The only permission you need to be a writer is the desire to be one and the commitment to actually write.

What’s worth striving for?

If we can’t define real writer with any satisfaction, then how do we measure our progress as writers? How do we know we’re getting somewhere?

Rather than trying to define the ephemeral “real” concept, I have found the following qualities to be measures of whether your writing life is moving in a satisfying direction. Nothing about being a writer requires that you do it full time or make all your money from it either. All that matters is that you feel enriched by writing and want to continue.

Here are some questions to reflect:

• Do I feel I’ve used my time meaningfully after writing?

• Am I able to see the ability to translate what’s in my head onto the page in more and more effective ways as I continue to write over time?

• Do I enjoy thinking about writing?

• Are other parts of my life enriched by my spending time on writing?

• Am I happier when I write than when I don’t?

• If writing is a struggle, does it feel like one worth my effort?

• Do I miss writing if I go without doing it?

• What does writing add to my life?

If considering these questions reveals a meaningful connection to writing, then that is far more important than any definition of what kind of writer you are.

Whether a professional, indie, mainstream-published, mystery, fantasy, literary, romance, nonfiction, memoir, children’s, award-winning, or aspiring writer, there is value in the work. As there is with all the other writers I could have spent all day listing here.

The truth is, you become a real writer as soon as you commit to writing. That’s the only step you need to take to join the club. Your permission is the most important, not anyone else’s.

If you dream of sharing your writing by publishing in magazines or via a publishing house, there are steps to take and hurdles to overcome, but those come after you’ve decided you want to write and publish. Choose writing, and you are a writer already.

What if it didn’t matter if you were a real writer?

What would change if we erased this concept from your mind? Please share what might be different in the comments below.

Join me for a free workshop!

On Friday the 13th of September (oooh! I couldn’t resist this date), the wonderful writing coach

Traci Skuce

and I are offering a guided writing workshop on the myth of the real writer called “You’re not doing it wrong.”

You’re invited! Let’s kick the real writer idea to the curb once and for all.

The full details and signup are here:

https://www.traciskuce.com/youre-not-doing-it-wrong/

*If you’re unable to attend live, there will be a replay.
Sign up above and we’ll send it to you.**

1. I’m putting a pin in this for a future post. The idea of what makes writing (or any creative work) good is so loaded that it deserves an extended discussion. Stay tuned…

2. This is absolutely my favorite. The very brilliant Natashia Déon shared this one with me on an episode of The Secret Library, which you can listen to here.