Define what a 'real writer' is to you.

[voluptuary_manque]

Somewhere out there is a difference between a "serious writer" and a "miserable keyboard twiddler" but I don't know just where it lies. I strongly believe that 98% of everything is junk but telling the difference between what is and is not junk is a challenge. Even "real writers" turn out junk and those of us who are but keyboard twiddlers . . . junk is our major output. The goal is to move from category to the other. How? When will we know? Tough question!

 

[ABSTRUSE]

Very nice responses. Thank you.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Product vs process pedagogy is a hot debate among the academic set.

It's about time!

 

[voluptuary_manque]

It's about time!

I dunno about that. Academic debate is more likely to obscure a question than to answer it . . . and I'm a born academic!

 

[sweetness6280]

I dunno about that. Academic debate is more likely to obscure a question than to answer it . . . and I'm a born academic!

LOL, agreed. The point is, there will never be a definitive answer to the question. There are too many grey areas. I love the debate, because I love to hear others' opinions, and expand my parameters.

BTW, by my criteria, I am not yet a writer of fiction. I write prolificly in other areas, but I am just dipping my toes in these waters.

 

[Stella_Omega]

It just seems like product has been ignored for a couple-three decades-- I follow the visual arts world, and so many youngsters have been taught that process is all, to the great detriment of the product (IMHO).

Am I a writer? Not at the moment, that's for sure!

 

[voluptuary_manque]

It just seems like product has been ignored for a couple-three decades-- I follow the visual arts world, and so many youngsters have been taught that process is all, to the great detriment of the product (IMHO).

Am I a writer? Not at the moment, that's for sure!

Ah, is that what you meant. Spot on, Stella. You are absolutely correct. It's the wonderful thing about the Post-Modernist world. No one has to listen to academic critics any more. They have badly lost credibility.

 

[drksideofthemoon]

I think real writers are precise, and concise with their language.

I am neither, I tend to ramble on. I think I'm more in the storyteller vein, and a good storyteller stretches the story out, whereas the writer tries to pare it down to the bare essentials.

 

[impressive]

I say to her, "I don't think you're a writer."

Well, she's definitely NOT a student ... because she couldn't nail the process. However, I wouldn't go so far as to say she wasn't a writer until I'd seen some product.

 

[Stella_Omega]

I think real writers are precise, and concise with their language.

I am neither, I tend to ramble on. I think I'm more in the storyteller vein, and a good storyteller stretches the story out, whereas the writer tries to pare it down to the bare essentials.

See? You've been bit by the Process mosquito.

 

[ABSTRUSE]

Storyteller.....Writer

are the two words interchangable or separate?

 

[jomar]

Writing is not like shitting. It's not something that anyone can do.

The exclamation point to 3113's informative post.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Storyteller.....Writer

are the two words interchangable or separate?

Wouldn't that relate to the medium? I do know people who can tell a story-- but can't write it down.

 

[ABSTRUSE]

Wouldn't that relate to the medium? I do know people who can tell a story-- but can't write it down.

Ah yes. Sometimes I miss things. DOH!

 

[Liar]

Storyteller.....Writer

are the two words interchangable or separate?

Very separate.

3113 said something avbout only talking about fiction writing here. I can't for the life of me do that.

Writing is writing is writing. If I write an essay, an article, a stageplay, a speech, a poem or a novel, it's the same amount of craftsmanship and, for the lack of a better word, artistry.

Just different genres.

Storytelling is one element of writing, applicable to most genres, but not equally much to all.

 

[BlackShanglan]

It just seems like product has been ignored for a couple-three decades-- I follow the visual arts world, and so many youngsters have been taught that process is all, to the great detriment of the product (IMHO).

*nods* The process-driven approach has its virtues, but like anything else, it suffers if you decide that it's the Holy Grail and the One Answer. Teaching everyone to follow a single process isn't notably more useful than showing them a product and demanding that they produce it without knowing the steps to get there.

I think you get the best of both when you look at your product, evaluate it as scrupulously and objectively as you can, and then look at your process to see how you got the good parts and how you can change the bad parts. Process focus fails when it stops asking whether it got the result desired; product focus fails when people stop looking at the product as the result of a process that they are capable of changing.

I suppose my upbringing shows. When I have trouble with my results, I drop back a step or two in the process - and I do know what my steps are or can be. That much I find very useful. Even if I began by just leaping in and writing, once I come to a sticking-place, I know that there is or can be a stage where I look at structure and organization and work out where I ought to be going - and I know how to zero in on that part of the work whether I do it before or after drafting. That's one of the nice parts of the process-based approach: it reminds you what the individual parts of a large and complex task are, and it helps you give each one its share of attention.

 

[gauchecritic]

I'd say that a writer is someone that can drive another's (reader) thought process.

There are three things that you, as a writer, can do to a reader. Get them involved (Identifying or empathising with the character), get them wondering (what happens next?) or get them participating (working out who actually dunnit)

Popular writers can do all three at once. Good writers can can string you along with just one.

 

[cheerful_deviant]

Just curious seeing we all have different methods of writing, but what defines being a writer to you?

The product.

The process.

The money.

 

[Boota]

I used to think being a real writer meant getting paid for it. Now I get paid for it and nothing has really changed. I was always a writer. Which means it has to be about the product. Quality without accolades is still quality.

 

[BOSTONFICTIONWRITER]

I'm a real writer and you are, too.

I'm a real writer.

You are a real writer.

If you are here reading this, then you are a real writer, too.

Writing is the joy you feel when you write the word, the sentence, the paragraph, and the story.

The real writer can't wait to get back to it and loses him or herself in what he or she is writing. Real writers lose track of time. Real writers can write all day and feel that we did not work. We had fun.

I once worked for a guy who wrote ads for banks. He was very successful winning numerous awards and making a lot of money.

He ran out from his inner sanctum to the main office holding a piece of paper and screaming, "I got it! I got it!"

What he had was the one line, three words (that I wish I could remember what they were) that he had struggled all day to write. He inspired me to write and to be a writer. Writing is a lifelong apprenticeship. I'm still learning.

In the early 70's, at Northeastern University in Boston, I had the good fortune of taking a creative writing class taught by Professor Robert Parker of Spencer For Hire fame. He quit teaching to write. He was a real writer, the only writer with a Ph. D. in detective fiction.

You don't have to be paid to write to be a writer. Down deep inside, you know if you are a writer or not. If you love to write, everything else will fall in place, fame and fortune for those who want that.

Writing is my passion. I love to write. I only write when inspired. I never sit at a blank page wondering what I will write.

I've turned down publishers offering me money to write for Literotica for free.

Why do I write for Literotica for free?

Because I work as a Corporate Controller toiling with the dismal science of accounting all day. That's my day job. If I was paid to write, I'd have to dance to their tune with deadlines. I don't want writing to feel like accounting. Presently, writing is not work, but my passion.

Maybe, when I retire from accounting, I'll try to make a living writing. Actually, if I wanted to make money writing, I'd write non-fiction. You can't make money writing fiction unless you are enormously talented. I'm just a guy who loves to write. I'm a real writer.

Thanks for the question. This was fun.

 

[McKenna]

I make a distinction between a writer and an author. Anyone can write.

An author, however, can take an edit without crying in her beer.

But seriously, an author makes a living by writing; to me, it's like the difference between a professional an an amateur. If you play basketball as a hobby, can you call yourself a basketball player? Sure, but certainly not a professional. The distinction is there, if subtle.

 

[impressive]

I make a distinction between a writer and an author. Anyone can write.

An author, however, can take an edit without crying in her beer.

But seriously, an author makes a living by writing; to me, it's like the difference between a professional an an amateur. If you play basketball as a hobby, can you call yourself a basketball player? Sure, but certainly not a professional. The distinction is there, if subtle.

I agree.

I don't put "writer" as my profession on my income taxes. I put "author" (among other things).

 

[McKenna]

I agree.

I don't put "writer" as my profession on my income taxes. I put "author" (among other things).

Ironically, my paid profession is "technical writer."

 

[impressive]

Ironically, my paid profession is "technical writer."

Well, see, I think I distinguish there between fiction and non-

Fiction writers are authors ... if that makes any sense at all. Now I've gone and confused myself, and it's all your fault.

 

[McKenna]

Well, see, I think I distinguish there between fiction and non-

Fiction writers are authors ... if that makes any sense at all. Now I've gone and confused myself, and it's all your fault.

What about journalists?