I have recently wanted to start calling myself a writer when people asked me what I do.
I don’t want to answer a mum who looks after two kids, when I have been working so hard on my writing, to the point where it takes over my life and I have to write.
But when can I actually say I am a writer?

Is there a point, some recognisable goal that when you reach it/achieve it, you can say that you are a writer?

I have recently made some new friends, this happens a lot because I am an expat living away from home; it is a transient lifestyle and friends come and go.
They asked me what I do? I told them I am a writer.
I noticed this intrigues people.
Perhaps I am the first person they have ever met who has the audacity to call themselves a writer?

But I am. I think…

I have spent too many hours hunched over a computer screen to be anything less. Then there are these internal changes: I live and breathe my writing. My mind is always turning, imagining, coming up with new ideas, thoughts, reflections.

Anyway… the inevitable next question is: what do you write?
I will answer books.
This will lead into another question about the type of books I write, so I tell them love stories!
Finally, they will ask me if they can read them – are the published? I have to tell them no and I hate it.

I hate this question because even though I haven’t published anything, I want to, but it takes a lot of time and a lot of money.
Still, I am going to publish something and I am so close, but that’s hard for people to understand.

I end up feeling like a fraud and I am sure they are deflated.

I can imagine them thinking: So you are a writer but you haven’t published anything? So, it’s not really writing then, it’s just a hobby?

I believe there is a lot of judgement.
Like a teacher who never teaches or an astronaut who has never been in space.
Can you only be classed into a certain category, when you prove your skills to a wider audience?

Am I still a writer even if I haven’t published anything, even if I never publish anything?

I got curious.

According to Dictionary.com a writer is: “a person engaged in writing books, articles, stories, etc., especially as an occupation or profession; an author or a journalist”

Pretty self-explanatory, right? No! It’s an ambiguous explanation.

Does it mean that you are only a writer when it is actually your job and you are paid for it?
Not because it is that thing you have to because your brain won’t switch off and its 2am in the morning, but you can’t stop, because you don’t want to lose the thread of what you were thinking…

Because I don’t think writing can ever be a side line to your life, once you start writing, it’s like a valve is pulled and you can’t stop. You have to write, whether your writing is published or not; the need to write is always there with you.

I found a great article online by Jessica Lawlor at Write Life. They asked people on social media who considered themselves as writers the question: “You know you’re a writer when…”

These were some of my favourites; they made me smile and I could definitely identify with them:

– “Every person you see, whether on a bus, at work or out shopping becomes a potential character for your novel.”

– “You think “this will make a great story” as you’re in the middle of an experience.”

– “Your computer is filled with half-baked story ideas that you’ll get to one day.”

– “Every part of your life (purse, car, house) is filled with random Post-It Notes and scribbled on receipts because you got an idea at a random moment”

Then I found this beautiful quote by Chuck Sambuchino, writer:

“You’re a writer because of the things you notice in the world, and the joy you feel stringing the right words together so they sound like music. You’re a writer because you can imagine something in such detail that it comes to life… You’re a writer because you have every reason to stop (it takes too much time, pays too little, and the rejection hurts too terribly), but you can’t do it. It’s not that you love to write so much as you need to write.”

Beautiful words that truly resonate with me. This is exactly how I would explain it, if I could explain it so eloquently.

Consequently, it seems there are a number of definitions of a writer; it’s not a simple answer.

I wondered if there were any qualities associated with being writer that could define what a writer is?

There are a number of lists on the internet, but I liked this simple one best from Anis Siddiqi, writer:

6 qualities of a writer are:
Love of writing, love of words, good grammar and punctuation skills, Imagination, Observation, self-motivation and professionalism.

“Liz” Strauss suggests that defining yourself as a writer is a unique experience, only each writer knows when they feel ready to call themselves a writer.
Despite the stumbling block of telling people I haven’t actually published a book; I know I am a writer and I always will be because as Strauss says:

“How do I know I am a writer? Try as I might to avoid it, I simply must write.”