At what point did you realize you were a writer?

Second Grade

We were given the assignment to write an Easter Bunny story. I tried to write it all in one sentence. Even then I was looking for a way to be original.

I can honestly say my story ideas are usually unique.

When I'm writing, or seriously working on edits, I'm a writer, the rest of the time I'm just a procrastinator.

I'm not sure if I am writer. I just like to write, and I write everyday, but aside from that, it's not like I was ever able to finish an original story.

I was actually 20,000 words on my first draft of my first novel until I decided to burn it down and start over with some very significant changes.

I still haven't realized it yet. Maybe I am just not one.

Being a writer isn't some magical state. When you write, when you seriously apply yourself to the act, you are a writer.

Good one or bad one is up for individual debate, but I don't think 'writer' should be a mystical label people are afraid they will never attain. Chin up, chaps. Have some faith, if you're getting the words down and you care about what you're doing - you have earned the label - for that is all it is. It's not an exclusive club and you don't need rich parents and a tux to get in.

imo =D

I've always operated by the idea that a profession is one where you're paid to do it. Words have meaning after all. It's the same with with acting. I didn't consider myself an actor until I joined SAG and was paid to act. It's the same with with writing.

I always said "I'm trying to write a book" or "I'm trying to write for a living" when people asked. So I never called myself an author until I got my first book deal. I think being an author is a subset of being a writer since there are many other forms of writing (technical writing, journalism, blogging) so I kind of skipped that title and just said I'm an author now.

It happened for me in the third grade. We had an assignment to create a book about the Old West and as part of it we had to write a Western story. I wrote this horrible, just god-awful, story where I was the good guy and some boys I didn't like were the bad guys. But it won as best story for the third grade. I was shocked, but from then on, I've felt like a writer. I haven't published anything yet, but I feel like a writer is who I am.

Ugh. Just lost my whole post. I'm not going to go through it again. I'll just say that being a writer makes sense of who I am--the neurotic, brooding personality, my dreams, my likes and loves, the fact that personality tests show me as one of those rare people that are extremely rational AND very emotional, my love of writing and the peace I feel while doing it, my independent nature (I want to do things MY way, without compromise) etc.

To play devil's advocate: people can be surfers, handymen, gamers, hunters, sport fisher, skiers, runners, local historians etc without making a living at it. The same with teachers, and lawyers. Even if I didn't have a job as a teacher I would still be one in virtue of my BEd and my membership in my professional society.

When I was twelve. I wrote quite a bit before then, but the word "writer" gave me the sense of a dude with a quill pen scribbling along on parchment. And I was a little girl typing away at a computer, so more of a "story-maker" or "I-have-no-idea-what-I'm-doing-but-it's-cool-person."

In high school I always wrote articles for the school paper, and then when I finally became the editor and ended up writing a lot of articles/made the paper better, I felt like I had the potential to write. But it was this year, my second semester of freshman year I felt like I am a writer because I wrote my first book, and the feedback I got from "beta" readers was not what I was expecting. Maybe I shouldn't doubt myself so much, but let's just say I wouldn't attempt to publish my book (it will be a series) if it weren't for the encouragement from these sort of friends who told me I can write really well. (I thought my mom would tell me it was good anyways, so I needed some un-blood-related-biased opinions to give myself the push to pursue the query process or not)

Um, about two weeks ago

I still don't know if I am! I would agree with many here that the proof is in the pudding. The moment someone actually pays you for your work is when you officially (at least in my mind) move from aspiring writer to writer.

Mike

When I was (I think) eleven, I wrote my first novel. It was more of a novella. It was about one hundred pages handwritten.

That's not when I realized I was a writer.

After showing the novel to friends and teachers and getting all kinds of delighted "oohs" and "aahs" because I was only eleven and it was a hundred pages long, I showed the novella to my mother. She took a red pen and went through it like a gruesome crimson tornado, marking every mistake, every ridiculous coincidence, every plot hole, and every annoying/unfunny character with no mercy whatsoever.

When I spent the next few days going back through the story and fixing the things she marked for correction... well, maybe I didn't realize I was a writer, but I knew something was going on.

(If you read that paragraph about my mom's reaction to my childhood opus and wisftully sighed, "Man, I wish my mom was that brutal!", you are probably a writer).

I think it was age 6. But here I am at age 40, and I only just finished my first novel. And no publishing credits to my name, unless you count the magazine articles I did in my 20s.

pgermanos said:

But it was this year, my second semester of freshman year I felt like I am a writer because I wrote my first book, and the feedback I got from "beta" readers was not what I was expecting. Maybe I shouldn't doubt myself so much, but let's just say I wouldn't attempt to publish my book (it will be a series) if it weren't for the encouragement from these sort of friends who told me I can write really well. (I thought my mom would tell me it was good anyways, so I needed some un-blood-related-biased opinions to give myself the push to pursue the query process or not)

Click to expand...

This is off-topic but, be careful when using friends as beta readers. They can be just as bad as relatives when critiquing your work. Ideally, you should find betas that you know fairly well, but not so well that their personal feelings for you will cause them to lose objectivity.

When I got a rejection letter.

What an interesting question. Well... I've been in love with books as far back as I can remember. At 14, I decided to dabble in writing, myself. I was horrifically amateur, but it was fun, and I steadily improved as I kept reading and writing.

I'd have to ask my husband what year it was. He remembers it better than I do, because it was what really brought us together. (What a twist, I know; the guy remembers a date better than the gal does? He's a keeper, I tell you.) But I clearly remember that it was writing with him that made me realize 'well, damn, we really do have a shot at this'.

We were running a forum-based roleplay together, something vaguely based on things like Final Fantasy, and whatever else we felt like throwing into the pot. We had other participants, but they were sporadic at best. The two of us, though, spun a huge, dramatic story between us, and one of the other 'writers' said that we really should try getting something of ours published. We pushed our story onward, revising the borrowed ideas out and replacing them with original material. We kept writing this story in installments over the next five years.

Now we're married with three complete trilogies and then some between us. If only I can revise one to a point that I'm happy with so I can take the plunge into our first submission...

When I finished my first novel, realized it wasn't the glittering diamond that I thought it was, and starting working to make it better. That's when I realized I was a "serious" writer.