I gave a presentation earlier this week to a group of teachers and had an interesting flashback experience that shows just how my mindset toward being an author has changed since I started writing…and feel like sharing, since this is my blog…LOL
When I started grad school three years ago, first class, first day, we had to introduce ourselves and tell the class something about ourselves. As everyone shared around the class, I panicked about what to share. I finally convinced myself to share that I was a writer (yes, i said it out loud to a group of strangers…), but didn’t mention that I had only a few credits to my name. I was so worried that there was some unwritten rule that I had to have a minimum two books or x number of magazine articles published to qualify as a “writer”, but as it turned out, I wasn’t struck by lightening.
After that, sharing that I was a writer became easier each time I did it (to strangers..lol). At the presentation, the teacher of the class introduced me and gave high compliments on my writing. She said she had no idea I was a writer until she checked out my website, and how impressed she was with my writing. I was surprised (pleasantly) to say the least, but unlike the old Beth in grad school, I smiled and thanked her without hesitation. Later, as I thought about it, I realized how, had that occured three short years ago, I’d have blushed and insisted I wasn’t a real writer yet because..why? Because I hadn’t met those lofty and undefinable things that qualify people as a writer?
Lori Foster, in her infinitely wise and down-to-earth way, once said that everyone who writes is a writer. There is no checklist to complete, no hoop to jump through, no group to join, no prerequisites for publishing–the act of writing qualifies you to be a writer. The difference, she said, is that some people who are writers eventually become published authors when they sell their work. It’s an easy, simple distinction that works well with the writer’s delicate psyche, and it’s true.
Of course, it doesn’t hurt to have someone publicly acknowledge that for you, either…
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