Kaitlyn Baker from Unsplash
Most people would answer ‘no,’ and that’s fine. Most people don’t write very often beyond the odd shopping list or text to a friend or family member.
But what if writing is an important part of your career or life and something you value and enjoy? If so, do you consider yourself a writer?
If not, why not? Is it because you’re not published yet? Or you don’t make your living as a writer?
I’m going to tell you something: You can call yourself a writer any time you want.
Here’s a story: A new coach came to me obviously distraught. She had recently spoken with a consultant and shared with the consultant that she was a writer and wished to eventually write and publish a book. The consultant then asked if she wrote every day.
No, the coach said. She had two small children and her schedule didn’t allow for it. She wrote when she could but wasn’t able to make it happen every day.
The consultant then replied, “Then you’re not a writer. Only people who write every day can call themselves writers.”
In addition to being rude and presumptuous, that consultant was also dead wrong.
You do not have to write every day, nor reach a certain word count per month, nor have a certain number of published works by age 40, to call yourself a writer.
There is no litmus test, no entrance exam, and no professional order that gets to decide who is and who isn’t a writer.
Anyone telling you that you’re not a writer because you don’t fit some arbitrary criteria is practicing toxic gatekeeping. Ignore them.
You do not need people in your life who bring you down by letting you think you have to belong to a certain club and don’t because you don’t satisfy their conditions.
The reality is that the writer club is a big tent, and there is plenty of room for poets, prose writers, hobbyists, professionals and people who write in all imaginable genres. There are no ‘true’ writers.
If you write–if you value writing, make it part of your life, or even aspire to someday do so–then you are a writer and as qualified to wear that title as the latest best-selling author.
Remember: Ignore the gatekeepers and let us know if you’re a writer.