Are you a Writer – or an Author?

From early on in my life I wanted to be a writer. I’m not sure where that desire came from seeing many of my family members were – and still are – farmers. Somehow I took a wrong turn and ended up in a classroom for 35 years. That was only ever my second choice of career. It happens. Now in “retirement” – or should I say – now that I’ve resigned from teaching little children – I’m finally writing full time. (I’m also studying full time doing my MA in Creative writing – that’s another story.)

I’ve always called myself a writer.

I’m now starting to reconsider that title, all because of a blog post I read this morning.

George, over at Tumblemoose Writing Services has posted a thought provoking article. He poses the question: “Are you a writer or an author?” In part he says:

“… in the eyes of the general populous, a writer is different from an author and the two are on completely different levels.  I think that to some extent, it’s picking nits, but remember that (and I hate this, even though it’s true) reality is not what matters – it’s people’s perception of reality that is the ultimate criteria.”

I tend to use the term writer most of the time. However, being a published author of 6 books, numerous stories, poems and articles, plays that have been performed and several thousand blog posts, I feel I’ve been short changing myself all these years.

When actually in the act of writing – I am a Writer.

When I’m published – be that in a magazine, book form, e-zine or blog post – I am definitely an Author.

Time to raise the stakes, methinks.

And hopefully get some respect. After all, I’ve worked hard for it.

Good writing.