This guest post from author Thomas E. Kennedy is the first of four, each focusing on a question that has empowered him - and could also empower you - as a writer.
Q: When do you become a writer?
Thomas E. Kennedy: When you’re starting out and have published little, maybe nothing at all yet, it is hard to believe in yourself as a writer. Back when I’d only published two or three stories, although I had been at it for years, when someone asked me what I did, I felt funny claiming to be a writer.
Did I really have to identify myself with the day job that paid my bills even though I considered writing the most important thing I did?
I asked a former teacher, Gordon Weaver, whose resumé included a dozen books of fiction, at what point he felt comfortable saying he was a writer. His answer empowered me.
He said, "A writer is someone who writes. A serious writer is someone for whom writing is the most serious activity he or she knows. The amount of publication, money, fame you might get – these are extra-literary factors."
With those words at my back, I began to call myself a writer.
How do you feel about calling yourself a writer?
Thomas E. Kennedy is the author of eight novels, as well as several collections of short stories and essays. He teaches creative writing at Fairleigh Dickinson University.
In the Company of Angels, published by Bloomsbury in June 2010, is one of four novels comprising the Copenhagen Quartet. It is the first of Kennedy’s books to be published in the UK.
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I started writing lately and the good thing is from being novice I'm at the level where I can show people my work, all I need is an agent or someone to take my work forward as Im not really expert in this field.
I believe in my self and the confidence is very hight I think that one day there will be film made on the story I write........ thats how confident I'am if anyone intrested in looking at someof my work just letme now....
I have firmly believed in the writer title since my first paid professional publication over a year ago now. Admittedly; I haven't actually advanced too far since then, but I like to think that I'm reputation building in the mean time.
I'll follow this I think.
If someone asked me what I do and I felt like being pedantic (as I often do) I would say I sleep a lot, watch tv, go to work, walk the dog, write a bit and numerous other activities, what do you do? At which point they would say I was only asking. What they should have asked is 'what do you do for a living?" The answer is then more obvious because it narrows down the options to the one which provides you with an income sufficient to meet you everyday needs. Nuff said?