What makes a writer a writer?
September Muse Column for The Greater Canton Writers' Guild
By M.Saylor
When
one thinks about the typical writer, what comes to mind? Do you think of the
old guy chomping on cigars and rat-a-tat-tatting on an old manual typewriter in
a smoke-filled room somewhere in the back of the house, or the attic or
basement so no one bothers him? Or perhaps
a more genteel vision of a woman sipping tea in her garden and writing in a
journal? Silly, isn’t it?
Writers
come from all facets of life and have their own eccentricities and
personalities, but we can all agree on some basics that make them writers such as,
1)
They have
a curiosity about the world (and ask
the most questions about absolutely everything, much to the annoyance of
everyone around them.) Their desire to know
is insatiable. The adage “not my monkey, not my circus” does not apply
to them.
2)
They have
thick skins – a much needed thing
to get over/through all the rejections until they get to the one ‘yes’ that
starts their career in earnest. (It ends up being a numbers game.)
3) They are self-motivating. Writers write alone- and that’s how it should be. We
are solitary people so it stands to reason we have no cheerleaders standing
behind us saying “Go –Go – Go! Keeping writing Carl – you can do it – yeah!”
Weird visual, huh? Real writing takes discipline to keep on regardless of how
one feels about it. We also need to know our limits – when we’ve hit the wall
and need to back off for a while. But then we always come back. We always come back to our writing. Why?
Because we have something to say. And
why is that, you ask?
4)
Because writers are opinionated. Anything less, and it is just a hobby. In general,
if a writer does not have an opinion, he has no voice – and thus, nothing to
say! End of story.
5)
They have
an endless supply of optimism and ideas. There is no shortage of things for the writer to write
about. Ideas come to them because writers are always mulling things over.
6)
We love
paper – at least us older writers
do. We always start everything off line, then move on to the computers for the
second draft. And we probably have stashes of paper laying everywhere around
the house. Right now I’m looking around me and finding four stacks of papers,
books, and notebooks. And I’m in the dining/living room area. (My REAL
jenga-pile of papers is on a footstool next to the bed.)
7)
And we
love our words – a little too much.
We have favorite words and sometimes we resent editing when it removes words from
what we’ve written. But remember that thick skin you need to cultivate – right?
What matters is not our words so much, but our message to our readers.
And we love talking to other writers; we need other
writers, for no one understands a writer except others of his own kind. For our
sanity and encouragement, I urge everyone to develop relationships/friendships
with other writers. It’s how we ground ourselves and our writing. And if we’re
serious, it holds us accountable.
