Day Seven

Word count: 15, 286

Quote:
Go ahead. Say it: "I am a writer." Practice saying it when people ask you what you do. You might feel like a complete fool. That is okay. Step forward and say it anyway."
from Wild Mind

I've said it before and I don't feel like a complete fool. It's more like a complete fraud. Because inevitably the next question is "What book have you written?" Or "Can I buy your book in a bookstore?" And the answer is: "No books. Not yet anyway." And there is this uncomfortable pause that I sometimes rush to fill by detailing my own criteria for calling myself a writer. That i have had a couple of articles published. But they were in small publications. And not any of my fiction. But then I did get my fiction published and even won a first place monetary award. Yet I still feel compelled to qualify it. Well, it was a very small publication. It wasn't a large contest. Blah, blah, blah. I swear, if I won the Pulitzer I would still find a way to demean the achievement.

I am a writer because I write pretty much everyday. I am a writer because I can't not write. I am may not earn my living writing in the same way that I do as a graphic designer but I earn my life by writing. But people don't really want to hear about that. So when it does come up, I usually just say that "I write." Because I do. No qualifying necessary.