Saturday, November 3, 2012

Are You a Writer?


I always find it interesting when two of my worlds collide, which often happens with my running and writing life. I have seen the need for names or labels divide both runners and writers, and I wanted to address this. In the running world, there is a debate about the right to be called a runner verses a jogger. Some runners feel that you only earn the right to call yourself a runner if you run a certain mile split. Others feel it has to do with the amount of races you do. Me? I believe you earn the title of runner, and likewise writer, through consistency and commitment.
 
I am a runner.  Six days a week, I lace up my running shoes and hit the road.  Sometimes I run twenty-two miles; sometimes I run only four.  I run in the humidity, in the dark, in the rain.  Sometimes I can’t wait to get out there and fly over the ground, and sometimes I slog through the run, looking forward to the shower at the end.  There are even some days when I sleep in and miss the run completely, though that doesn’t happen that often.  I’ve never won a race.  I've placed in my age-group.  I’ve seen my marathon times get better and better, I’ve seen my mile splits get smaller, and I’ve set goals and crashed through them.  But I’ve never won a race, and I probably never will.  I’m okay with that.  I’m a solid mid-packer.  I am close to Boston qualifying, which I am quite proud of, but I've never broken through that tape.  But I am still a runner.

I don’t know why that lesson was so hard for me to learn when it came to writing.  At first, I never told anyone that I wrote.  It was a hobby that was just mine, an indulgence that was too sacred to share.  Then, when I finally got the courage, I told people that I liked to write.  I wrote almost every day, most often meeting and exceeding my goal of 1,000 words, but I could not call myself a writer.  I liked to write.  Because in my mind, until I was published, and published more than once, I was not a writer.

How silly.  I run every day, therefore I am a runner.  I write every day, therefore I’m a writer.  It should be that simple, but it’s not.  It took me a while to see it that way, mainly because I let other people’s perceptions color my own.  But then where is that line?  Are you only a writer if you are published?  Or are you only a writer if you can make your living that way?  Or are you only a writer if you have been validated by someone you deem worthy?

I am not a person who believes everyone deserves a trophy for participating. But I do think there are many ways to be a writer, and only some of them involve being published.  If you love words enough to craft them into sentence and story, then you are a writer. If you write consistently and hone your craft, you are a writer. To me the line between someone who writes and a writer is passion and drive. A writer works at her art and pushes herself to be better. But you don’t have to cross that finish line first to cross that finish line – you just have to meet whatever goal you set for yourself and find joy in the act of doing.  That is running. And that is writing.

7 comments:

  1. While I dislike running as much as you like it, I completely agree with your arguments on terminology for both. If you write, you're a writer. That's really all there is to it.

    For some reason I've differentiated between writer and author in my head for years, though. Like I don't have the right to call myself an author until it's my job and, until then, I'm "just" a writer. Isn't it weird how we all get so hung up on things like that?

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  2. Now see, I think that once you have a published book, you are an author, even if you still have a day job. :)

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    1. Hi Sarah, I know exactly what you mean, though the furthest I have ever run is less than a mile! I've been calling myself an artist and a designer for my entire adult life, but it took me about three years of stealth writing before I dared "come out". I still don't like to call myself an author. I think it's because writing speaks to process, and anyone who commits to writing, day after day deserves to call themselves that. Author, denotes an end result.

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    2. Good point. Writing is something we have control of, as it is in our hands whether or not we commit outselves to creating. But author is somewhat out of our hands, as it requires action on the part of others.

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  3. To me you have always been a writer. But I am proud to say I know you now that you are an author! Such a monumental thing in your life Guil! I am so happy for you! I will purchase my book when it comes out and come over to have you sign so I can add it to my library. Someone VERY special to me taught me a long time ago that reading was a wonderful thing and every time I open a new book I think of you!

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    1. You are such a sweetie! This made me so happy. :) The support and encouragement from my students, past and present, are one reason I kept at it.

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  4. I love this! You are so right. It's easy to dismiss our writing instead of owning it, maybe because it feels like there should be tangible proof - like a book with our names on it, in our hands, right then. I find myself doing the same thing, saying "I write" or "I like to write" instead of calling myself a writer.

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