Can I Call Myself a Writer?

Hello peoples! Today I’m going to talk about my writing. No, I’m not going to share any snippets from my WIP (Work In Progress). In fact, I don’t have a WIP that I am actively working on. And sometimes, when reading author profile pages or someone else’s blog post, I feel guilty. As if “Sure, I’m a reader and a book blogger, but I’ll never be complete because I’m not a fiction writer.”

I have been told by writing teachers, friends, and family that I am a good writer. (My family members are brutally honest. Friends? Not so much, but 2 out of 3 *shrugs*) I believe that I am a good writer. Yes, sometimes I overuse the thesaurus, resulting in horribly awkward sentences. But overall, I like my style and voice.

I did not write many stories when I was young (young as in under 10). I can recall maybe 3. I wrote assigned stories, but hardly any of my own volition. In 2015, I decided to try participating in NaNoWriMo. I failed miserably. I wrote 12,628 words and that’s the most I’ve ever written following one plot.

I do have a little red notebook that I use as a journal of writing ideas. Character names, plot bunnies, conversations I overhear. Sometimes an entire scene, complete with setting, characters, and dialogue, will pop into my head. They come as these strange little flashes where I can so clearly see a world, but only through the smallest of windows, and then it disappears.

I have no finished story over 1,000 words. Among my fellow bloggers/writers, this sometimes makes me feel like an oddball. In this age, we are seeing tons of youthful genius. I’m not going to claim that everyone who deserves it gets attention, but there are now so many venues of getting yourself out there. This is not something negative, until I make it a competition in my mind. She’s sixteen and she just got published! She’s been working on this story since she was eleven?! I need to up my game-but I’m already losing. And on and on. It’s unhealthy, and part of being an artist is letting it be natural. Creativity is an inherent piece of you, not something you do to feel validated.

I write for this blog, as well as my personal blog teenmusing. I’d also like to start writing in my journal more. (Greater quantities and more frequently. I opened it to write something the other night and saw that it’d been almost a year since I’d last written an entry. Oops.)

Currently, I don’t have a story to tell. What I’m doing right now is enough writing for me. And who knows? Perhaps someday my little red notebook will turn into a published story. Maybe not. There are plenty of successful authors who didn’t write seriously until after their forties! If you’re curious about their lives, Bloom is a website that focuses on “late-blooming” writers. No matter what I do and do not accomplish in my life, I don’t want to base my happiness on how well I measure up to other people.

Do you compare yourself to others? Does it push you to be your best or drag you down? Comment, we can commiserate, everyone will feel a little bit better 🙂

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