You’re A Real Writer: Now Go Write
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We all remember the first story we ever wrote, that moment we fell in love with writing. We also remember when we were met with negative comments. One phrase we’ve all heard is “You’re not a real writer unless you’re published”. Love that one honestly, it always stings and it can stay with us for a long time. Once we realize often through the support of fellow writers that being published doesn’t make you a real writer. You are a real writer the moment you set your mind to writing a story. The moment you create that character and place them in the world you made. The idea that you need to be published first is absurd.
When you start out there will be those kinds of people, most of them will be people who have never written a story in their life and never will. Why they feel the need to express their opinion is beyond me yet they give it so freely. Dealing with this takes a certain amount of knowing your self-worth and knowing that it’s just an opinion, not a fact. For some reason when anyone mentions they are any kind of creative, whether they are an artist, musician, dancer, or even a writer there are people who will say the most inconsiderate things. When I first encountered these people I thought their opinion meant something (boy was I wrong) and I let it affect me. I never called myself a writer out loud for years. I called myself an aspiring author, which I felt was safe because I wasn’t saying “Hey I’m a writer” and I was avoiding that dreaded statement. Then I actively joined Instagram to connect with other writers and I found so many people with the word Writer in their profile while they were still working on their books. Needless to say, I was like Jack Skellington when he fell into Christmas Town “What’s this?!” I quickly found that these people called themselves writers because simply put they were. The definition of a writer for them and for me eventually was someone who wrote an author was someone who finished the (bleeping) book. Those definitions I could definitely live with.
I found myself not really caring when people would say “You’re not a real writer if you’re not published” and I found myself going to bat for other new writers who had their confidence bruised by these words. I could write a whole other essay about other dumb stuff people have said to me as soon as the words “I write” or “My story is about” left my mouth. But the above is by far the dumbest and the most damaging. Nobody is going to walk up to Stephen King and say you’re not a real writer, the man would probably punch them with a list of his bestsellers. Yet he started out not published, he started out just writing. People tend to forget that their favorite authors or famous authors didn’t start out as these real writers.
My best advice to anyone who has ever heard negativity in any artistic pursuit is this, most of your criticism will come from people who know nothing about what you do, and if any of it comes from an “authority” then they are not an authority worth listening to. Nobody who truly cares about your art and wants you to excel at it will ever bring you down, their words will only be advice because they’ve been in your shoes and they know what worked. Criticism cuts, advice heals. Knowing the difference is key. Your work is valuable and you’re worth investing in, so invest in yourself and only listen to those who want to see you grow.
You’re a real writer. Now go write.
About Nena Orcutt
Nena Orcutt is an aspiring author, who thinks too much, Listens to a lot of music. Needs coffee to function. Who thinks Bukowski was a wise man and Hemingway was a genius. And feels romance isn’t dead. She is working on her debut novel “The Crow and The Butterfly” Making her home in Music City she’s ready to conquer the writing world and leave her mark.
