What makes *you* an author?

[Chicklet]

In another thread I wondered whether I was a "real" author or not. It got me thinking about all of you, and what's going on in your minds.

What is it that makes you consider yourself an author? Is it having just one story done, is it having a hundred...not what makes others authors, but what is it that makes you define yourself as an "author"

For me, when I feel that I have so many things going on in my head that I have to get them down on paper...when I see that I can transfer thoughts and stories to other people...when I know that if I was told I could never write anything ever again I'd DIE...that's when I know I'm an author.

-Chicklet

 

[English Lady]

I remember submiting my first story here at lit and i did not consider myself an author then,i was in awe of the good writers who hung out here in the hangout,i think that i didn't think of myself as an author until i began to receive feedback.

I still am not sure if i am entitled to the title "author" as i still feel i have alot to learn. Maybe I am an aprentice author or a baby author or something like that


I will be an author,i cannot imagine a future in which i don't write.having my cast has been a nightmare,i can type one handed enough to post but not to create stories and that has driven me to distraction. I need to write but i think to be an author others must need or want you to write too!

 

[Why]

Ask your self the following questions:

Do people read my work?

Do people want to read more?

Do people like or dislike like it and take the time to say so?

If the answer to them is yes, then I honestly believe you are a writer/author.

 

[Svenskaflicka]

What makes me an Author?

I make up stories.

I see a little boy run toward a man, jumping into his arms, hugging him, and I make up a story about the man being a close friend to the family, and the boy's father having left the mother when he found out she was pregnant. The boy loves this man, and wants him to be his new dad, and the man wants the same thing, but since he's 10 years younger than the boy's mother, he's afraid she won't want him...

I see a schampoo commercial where a woman pull a mechanic out from underneath a car, by the hair, and I make up a story about how she jumps him then and there, on the dirty floor...

I hear a song on the radio, and I make up a story about a music group who sings covers, and during one song, the lead singer gets off the stage and dances up to a guy in the audience and starts some heavy flirting with him...

I make up stories. Some of them make it to the paper, some end up online, and some are still waiting in a box in the back of my head.

That makes me an Author.








And I'm thinking of turning this into a poem...

 

[Guest]

AV anthology

I read your post Flicka and thought, "And I'll make up a story about that inscrutable blond on the left."

Then I thought, "Wow, I could write a story about that delightful butt on Chicklet's AV."

I could write amazingly erotic poetry about Pirate Pops and his red bird (which can only symbolize one thing to the Latin lady on my AV!)

Don't know what I'd write about MG's AV though, probably nothing legal.

I have made stories about nothing that turn into something by starting to write or type.

I'm an author, Chickletta, so are you.

Perdita

 

[Svenskaflicka]

All of a sudden, I have a lot of jokes about the French word "bicyclette" floating around in my head...

 

[Chicklet]

all of a sudden i want svenskaflicka to tell me a joke...

 

[PAUL C]

I don't know

I have written a lot of words.

I have written about my two principal characters making love in excess of 200 times.

I write poems.

I don't think you can call yourself an author. That is for others to do.

 

[jon.hayworth]

Ask your self the following questions:

Do people read my work?

Do people want to read more?

Do people like or dislike like it and take the time to say so?

If the answer to them is yes, then I honestly believe you are a writer/author.

Maybe the above questions could be used to define an "Author" but I think one should look further Chicklet probably summed up, what defines me as a writer - when I know that if I was told I could never write anything ever again I'd DIE... It is the creative impulse - the desire to create an image using words.

One of the most influential writers of the 20th century was James Joyce - yet by any Utilitarian criteria - such as number of readers he would not count when compared to a writer of Airport Blockbusters.

What I am trying to say is knowing one is a writer is an inner thing - I know I am a writer when I dump on my SO because her demands for my company impinging upon the time I want to spend writing. It may sound sad but if I had to choose between the two she would have to go.

jon

ps Would you please take a look at the paragraphs thread and contribute, you may be helping yourself and others make their work more readable.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

What Do I Have To Do?

To get my ass kissed by Perdita? Everyone else seems to manage it. Why can't I?


---dr.M.

 

[Octavian]

I do not consider myself an author, even though I fulfil most of the listed criteria.
People have read my one serious story and a large number have sent feedback saying how much they enjoyed it. Quite a few have asked if I have written anything else.

But I don’t feel a compulsion to write and that is the acid test, I think.

Octavian
________________________________________________
“Encase your majestic tree of manhood in the sublimely soft wondrous wet hallowed depths of my body,” she implored.

“Oh,” he replied, “You mean you wanna fuck!”

 

[Guest]

Author! Author!

Call me boring.

Call me a literalist.

An author is someone who is the original creator of a literary work. I like to focus on the "original creator" part.

I am an author of non-fiction. I conceived the concepts for the papers and articles and fleshed them out. The good pieces were made fine by excellent editors. But all of the concepts were mine.

The same is true for my stories and poems. They are my creations. I conceived them and fleshed them out. Many times I have received encouragement and help from other authors, but they are mine.

One is an author when one creates original writing.

Now, a writer. That is a whole different kettle of fish.

b

 

[Couture]

I'm a card carrying member of the writer's union. That's what makes me a writer. The rest of yous are a bunch of scabs.

 

[Svenskaflicka]

Re: What Do I Have To Do?

To get my ass kissed by Perdita? Everyone else seems to manage it. Why can't I?


---dr.M.

Well, acting like a human being worked for me..?

 

[MathGirl]

Re: What Do I Have To Do?

To get my ass kissed by Perdita? Everyone else seems to manage it. Why can't I?

Dear Dr M,
I think you're being unfair to Perdita. However, if you stand there on the corner with your pants down long enough, something's bound to happen eventually.
MG

 

[Chicklet]

Re: Re: What Do I Have To Do?

if you stand there on the corner with your pants down long enough, something's bound to happen eventually.

had to lmao for a bit

 

[Svenskaflicka]

Didn't BlackAdder say something about a man who dropped his trousers and stood by the end of a corridor, pretending to be a doorknob..?

 

[Guest]

...

 

[Guest]

Black Adder, what's up with that?

Didn't BlackAdder say something about a man who dropped his trousers and stood by the end of a corridor, pretending to be a doorknob..?

Flicka: I love him. He's like a spastic Alan Rickman, a goofy Snape.

Perdy

 

[Svenskaflicka]

So true. I loved him in the Elizabethian years. If Alan Rickman hadn't accepted to be Snape, I think Rowan Atkinson would have been an excellent choice. He would have been so GOOD at glaring and drawling and being sarcastic!

(Not to mention the fact that he's gorgeous!)

 

[Guest]

Elizabethan Snapey

Ha! I think they should re-make the Eliz. 'Black Adder' w/Alan; or let him star in the "BA--the Movie".

Oh, let's talk about being authors now so Chicklet doesn't clench her cheeks. That's what this thread is about isn't it? Let's ask Dr. M., he knows everything.

Perd

 

[gauchecritic]

I'm a card carrying member of the writer's union. That's what makes me a writer. The rest of yous are a bunch of scabs.

Well said. Even the scouse accent.

Gauche

 

[KillerMuffin]

The fact that I put words to paper on a semi-regular basis. That's what makes me an author. A scab author cause I'm not a card-carrying member of the writer's union.

 

[Svenskaflicka]

I wonder if Rowan Atkinson and Alan Rickman are authors?

 

[Croctden]

Me big asshole. ROAR!

To me just writing alot and liking to write does not mean you're an author. If that's the case half the people in the world are authors. I don't have a rule a thumb, but there has to be a certian level of talent. I don't want to say mass popularity is a good standard, the masses are asses. If I had to qualify it I would say someone whose writings fall into that cliche that "you can't put it down," a book you sneak moments to read, that you reread, and someone whose books you look forward to.