What Makes a “Real” Writer?

Lately I’ve been mulling over the question of what makes a “real” writer.

Exhibit A. By day, I write for an engineering association magazine. I, ostensibly, get paid to write. However, recently I haven’t been feeling like a “real” writer. I earned a writing master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University, but my own creative work, the stuff that buzzes around in my brain and whispers in my ear to hurry up and get it down in squiggly black lines, has been on the back burner as I’ve taken on a steady stream of freelance editing and writing-for-hire projects.

I don’t have to look far to find two great exhibit Bs.

Exhibit B1: my husband Gregg. The first, last, and only writing class Gregg’s taken in his life was the one in high school where I met him. However, he is an excellent writer–one of those people who is naturally talented. Over the last several months, Gregg has been hard at work at a book of fiction. He goes to bed at night thinking about the book. He wakes up in the morning thinking about it. He jumps out of the shower to run to his laptop to jot down ideas about it. I envy him that.

And I can’t wait to read it. Because Gregg is passionate about it, and because he is naturally talented, I know it’s going to be great. Also, because he’s one of those hateful people who doesn’t need to take classes to be awesome at something. Go check out his art for another example of this. (Up until two years ago, his last formal art class was also in high school, when the teacher told him he was too logical to succeed as an artist.)

Exhibit B2: my best friend G.G. I met G.G. in the writing center where we both worked in college. She was the administrative assistant, and I was a writing tutor. G.G. majored in sociology and then pursued a graduate degree in counseling. Lately, she’s been a stay-at-home mom to her two adorable boys. But she’s also been writing. After publishing TV and book reviews in an online magazine, G.G. has been hard at work revising her novel that she wrote in 2010 for NaNoWriMo. She estimates she’s spent about 300 hours on it so far. I just started reading it to give her feedback before she submits it to a contest. I am thrilled to say that I don’t have to pretend to gush over it. G.G. has a funny, quirky voice that just hooks you.

There are those who might say that neither Gregg nor G.G. are “real” writers. They don’t make money off of writing and they don’t have writing degrees. To them, I’d say pish-posh. Gregg and G.G. write more than I do. They are dedicated, they are hard-working, and they are talented.

What others say. As I’ve been mulling over the question of “What makes a ‘Real’ Writer,” my new favorite writing guru Chuck Wendig (I’ll try to reference him only in every other post after this) posted this handy flowchart to help determine whether you’re a real writer. I love it.

Wendig’s post was a response to this piece, 10 Questions to Know if You’re a Pro. Oops, I think right now I meet three of those qualifications. Guess I better go take a job waitressing.

I see where the author was going with that piece, but I think it sets the bar way too high. I used to be the kind of person who never wanted to do anything unless I knew I could be really good at it. I was that dreaded perfectionist (okay, now I’m a recovering perfectionist). One day in college, I decided to mess around on my friend Josh’s hand drums. I was pretty bad at it, but you know what? I loved it. I loved being able to participate in the Friday night Shabbat music sessions when we all sat around after a delicious home-cooked dinner and played music together. It didn’t matter that I wasn’t the best, or not even very good.

I think about all those people who started creative pursuits late in their careers and turned out to be excellent. Grandma Moses, for one. Where would they have been if they thought they should leave that art to the professionals? Where would our world be?

The freedom to be mediocre. So I advocate strongly that people should allow themselves the freedom to be mediocre at something, as long as it makes them happy. And then to practice. And one day, they might be the next famous folk artist or late-blooming writer like Laura Ingalls Wilder (published first in her mid-60s), Frank McCourt (published Angela’s Ashes in his mid-60s), Raymond Chandler (published his first successful novel at 51), or James Michener (published his first book at 40).

I do believe some people have natural talent (Gregg and G.G., for two), and maybe they need to practice a little less. But we all need to apply ourselves, whether we were composing sonnets from the age of 10 or didn’t write our first short story until we were 56. As my guru Chuck says, writers are people who write.

I feel pretty mediocre myself these days. But I know what I need to do: sit down at the keyboard and put in my 10,000 hours of practice.

Check out Gregg’s website for more of his writing.

Photo by Dave Morrison Photography and licensed through Creative Commons