Do You Introduce Yourself as a Writer?

And, if not, why not?

When you’re meeting someone for the first time, let’s say at a gathering at a friend’s place, and they ask what you “do,” do you:

a)     Proudly declare you’re a writer

b)    Answer with your other occupation, if you have one (teacher, pilot, recruiter, student) and then half-mumble writer

c)     Never say writer at all

d)    Refuse to answer because it’s a boring question :)

My answer is B. I‘ll first say I’m a professor (and quickly specify “adjunct”) and then I’ll add that I used to be in marketing communications, just so they know I can talk business-speak. And only then will I casually say, “Oh, and I’ve written a book about creativity” or “I’ve done a bunch of writing for the Boston Globe opinion pages” or “I’m doing a newsletter now about writing.”

Notice how writing is third in line and how I don’t even say these three simple words: “I’m a writer.” I’ve observed this hesitation in others, too.

What prevents some of us from assuming the mantle of Writer despite the fact that we write? Especially when it’s our primary preoccupation (if not our primary occupation)?

Here are my top three reasons:

1.     I don’t make a sustainable income from writing

Implicit in the question, “what do you do ?”is the unsaid part: What do you do for a living? And since my earnings have predominantly come through business roles or teaching, it feels awkward to answer, “I write.”

It’s the rare book author who can make a sustainable income from creative writing, alone. The Authors Guild’s 2018 Author Income Survey, the largest survey of writing-related earnings by American authors ever conducted, “finds incomes falling to historic lows to a median of $6,080 in 2017, down 42 percent from 2009.” Even when other writing-related activities, such as speaking engagements, book reviewing or teaching were added in, “respondents who identified themselves as full-time book authors still only earned a median income of $20,300, well below the federal poverty line for a family of three or more.”

If the measure of whether you can call yourself a writer (at least a writer of books) is based on whether you make a decent income from it, there’d be only three legitimate writers in the world: Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, and James Patterson. I’m exaggerating, of course, but not by much.

2.     Billions of people are “writers”

I think we devalue ourselves as writers in a way we wouldn’t if we were painters, musicians, architects, etc. Most literate people across the globe have been writing since the age of three or four. That’s billions of people all scribbling away from the time they were doing it with crayon. So, what makes us think we’re special, right?

But, obviously, there’s a difference between people who write out of necessity in the daily course of their lives and those who are devoted to writing.

3.     I don’t write every day

Some people produce pages every day, or at least five days a week. Others, like me, write frequently but not daily. Does that mean I’m not a writer?

As a professor, I don’t always teach during the summers. And yet I still maintain my identity as a teacher; it doesn’t disappear when I’m not in the classroom. So, why should it be any different with writing?

Here’s how Sylvia Plath expressed confidence in herself as a writer to her mother in a letter she wrote four months before her death, during an incredibly prolific creative period: “I am a writer... I am a genius of a writer; I have it in me. I am writing the best poems of my life; they will make my name.”

We’re not all geniuses, but I think If we can start to internalize being a writer as a huge part of our identity and present it as such to the external world, we’ll get in the habit of believing it and taking pride in it. Whether or not writing is a full-time occupation, it’s what we do. And, beyond this, it’s not just what we do, it’s who we are.

(The author getting distracted by Zoey (who happens to be turning 2 today!)).

I’d love if you shared whether or not you present yourself as a writer, and how you either achieved that confidence to do so or what stands in the way. Thanks as always for being so open and honest with this growing writers’ community!