What is a Writer?

Hi, I’m Aria, and I am a writer.

What makes someone a writer is a complicated question.  The very basic definition is simply that a writer is someone who writes.  Through the very action of putting words on paper, we open the door to being ‘writers’.  Gennifer Albin wrote in a pep talk for National Novel Writing Month 2012:

“The real secret is that anyone can write a book. There’s no initiation ceremony. No dues to pay. You don’t need a special degree from a fancy school. Writing is for everyone.”

While I agree, I have also found being a writer to be more complicated.  Writers morph experiences into words on a page.  They delve into the minds of a vast array of characters to create openings into worlds – ones which welcome readers, affording them an opportunity to experience more lives than a single person could otherwise know.  Writing may indeed be for everyone, but not everyone can be a writer – producing openings, rather than embracing them.

In order for such openings to be seized, writers must ultimately share their work.  This can be done on a small scale with friends and family, but, for assured impact, requires some form of publishing. 

Is being published then a requirement for being a writer?  By no means.  Writing is ultimately about creation, not dissemination.  And yet, I have discovered that to a certain extent a need exists to share that creation, to know that the writing translates and transports, evoking experiences and emotions that are at the very least close to the ones intended.

So, I strive now to complete work, polishing it for public consumption, though this is of course only the first step on the complicated path to publication.  This blog begins then by stepping onto that path and hopes to follow it through, past inevitable obstacles, to its desired yet elusive conclusion.