There's Something Massively Wrong With the Idea That Writers Have to Be Authors

Not for the first time, but the most recent time, I had a woman in my critique group ask all of us the question - shared here with permission - 

"I love writing and sharing my stories with you, but what if I don't ever want to publish them? Is it wrong for me to still want to critique them here?" 

We all immediately told her that whether she wanted to publish her work years down the road or even never, she was still welcome to submit it to the group for critique and feedback regardless of what she did with her work afterward. 

This simple question sparked a discussion among us about whether or not writers had to be authors and why it seemed that it was expected if not demanded of writers to publish their work. 

Within the writing circles, there can sometimes feel like there is this overwhelming pressure to publish work in order to see one's name in print and prove that there was some measure of success achieved through the act of writing, but this couldn't be further from the truth and can damage the creativeness of some writers. 

There are some writers who would share more heartfelt and personal details in their writing or poems if they didn't inadvertently feel like they were someday going to be harshly judged by the masses if they felt pressured into sharing their work. 

Writing is an art form, much like drawing, painting, knitting, and many others. When I feel creatively stuck in a project I sometimes take the time that I have usually scheduled for writing and I instead sit at a craft area I have in my office and I paint. 

While it's a creative expression, the same as writing is for me, I would never share this work with the world because it is something I do solely for myself. The only ones who get to see them are my partner when I feel like sharing, and the monster under the bed where I store them in a box after they have dried. 

Now if there was pressure for me to share these paintings with the world, I would probably sit at this small corner of the desk in front of a blank canvas and never be able to even dab on a single color of paint. Fear, judgment, and many other emotions would war within me trying to create something worth sharing so that I wouldn't be able to come up with anything at all worth putting on the canvas. 

This can be the same for a writer who sits down at their desk, wanting to tell a story that has lived inside of them for years, only to be stopped by the same fears. 

This pressure society and social media place on writers to conform to the goal of authorship can turn this personal act of self-expression into a race or need for external validation.  

The unpublished writer is not more or less accomplished than a published author because they have accomplished something meaningful, significant, and impactful in their own right and by their own standards. 

Writing is not just about being an author, it's about creating, learning, and growing as an individual without the need for external validation of publication.

If you want to write just for yourself, you are just as welcome to join critique groups if you want to learn and seek feedback on your work, even if all you're going to do in the end is place it in a box beneath your bed to gather dust for the next however many years until you take it out and reminisce on the words that you turned into an art of your own self-expression. 

A writer is a writer, it doesn't mean you have to be an author. 

Now go and write. Whether you are writing for the world or the same monster under the bed that I paint for -  all that's important is that you are expressing yourself in the way you love most. 

With love.

B. King xo xo

Want to write with me live? I'm now on Twitch! Come join me in some writing sprints every Wed-Thurs-Fri-Sat at 10:30 pm EST

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