When Can You Consider Yourself A 'Real Writer'?

For some reason, society today claims that there is a difference between being a writer and being a 'real writer.'

"Oh, you're a writer? Well, are you a 'real' writer?"

Thankfully I have never been asked this question because I can promise that whoever was on the asking end of it wouldn't like or appreciate my response especially if they used air quotes around 'real' when they were asking me. 

What's this big difference that some in society say there is that is a matter that calls for the use of the clarification on being a 'real' writer?

Money.

That's all. 

Unless you are able to meet some unspecified threshold of monetary gain, you're not a 'real' writer. You're mainly a hobbyist, so what do you really do for a living?

Ignore this.

Let whoever holds this opinion of you go on thinking whatever it is that they want of you because they are not worth the explanation of you having to justify yourself to them.

Do you write?

Then you're a real writer.

It doesn't matter what you write or how you write. You can be writing blog posts that only a handful of people or a million people see and you would still be a writer.

You could be working your way through a novel, whether you write a few thousand words a day or only a few hundred in a year you would still be a writer.

You don't have to make money from your writing to be a writer. Look at the authors of some books that are nonprofit, you're going to tell me they're not really writers because they're not making any money from it? 

The only qualification you need to be a writer is to write and even that doesn't have to be an all-the-time thing.

I am a full-time writer at the end of the day whether I wrote anything or made any money from what I wrote that day or not.

Some days I have to spend my time writing social media posts or making marketing content for my work. I'm still a real writer.

Some days I spend researching topics for blog posts or researching things for my novels. I'm still a real writer.

Some days I spend reading in a comfortable chair with a cat and a cup of tea. I'm still a real writer.

Sometimes an entire week will pass and I won't have written a single thing because I just haven't had the time or I haven't had the creative energy to write anything. I am still a real writer.

You don't get a special badge for being a writer. There's no shiny plague you hang on your wall (unless you make one) or some website you have to register yourself to pay fees to be a writer. 

A writer is a writer is a writer is a writer.

Do you write? You're a writer.

Yes, a 'real' writer no matter what anybody else has to say about it.

If someone who doesn't write is telling you this, tell them to mind their own business and keep on being the writer that you are.

If someone who does write is telling you this, tell them to mind their own business and keep on being the writer that you are.

We're all on our own paths, the only important thing is that you write whenever you can. 

You are a writer and I am so proud of you.

With love, 

B.K. xo

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