The Beginners Guide to Calling Yourself a Writer

 

1.     Actually write. Don’t just think about it.

2.     Get over the idea that to call yourself a writer you need to be a published writer; if you write you are a writer.

3.     Make sure other people take you seriously. If you study door is shut it means you’re busy and shouldn’t be disturbed.  Don’t have a study? Then lap-top open or pen in hand and note-book open also mean you’re busy and shouldn’t be disturbed. Use your lap-top for other activities where you don’t mind a disturbance? Then invent a signal that means you mustn’t be disturbed. Wear a red scarf, put a grumpy teddy on the table or have your ‘I Am a Writer’ mug to hand

4.     Get yourself an ‘I Am a Writer’ mug made.

5.     If the day job is still 100% necessary use the word ‘and’.  ‘I am a mum and a writer.’ ‘I am a soldier and a writer.’ ‘I am a dentist and a writer.’ Occasionally put it the other way round: ‘I am a writer and a dad.’ ‘I am a writer and a PA.’  

6.     Read, read, read but read like a writer. If this book is good, what makes it good?

7.     Learn to love pens and notebooks – but try to stop people giving them as gifts – you’ll get too many and they probably won’t be quite the right sort.

8.     Find your tribe- find other writers and see yourself and assert yourself as one of them.

9.     Go to other writers’ events – as a peer.

10.  Learn from others, prepare to share what you know but in the end make your own mind up about everything.

How to avoid or cope with some of the biggest bugbears of being a writer

 

1.      Your friends and family – or even you yourself - don’t take you seriously 

Don’t be afraid to call yourself a writer. If you spend time writing, you are a writer.  It doesn’t matter whether you are published or not or whether you have hundreds of five star reviews or not; what matters is that you write  So, make time to write and make sure that everyone understands that that time is precious.

2.      Rejection

It still always hurts, no matter how often it happens and no matter how many acceptances you have. It’s okay to think “Your loss, mate.” But best not to say that. Often it’s not because there is anything wrong with your writing though it’s always worth another look before you send it out again. It can be a matter of timing. It’s all so very subjective anyway. So, dust yourself off, give the work a little tweak, take an honest look at why it may have been rejected, consider it a “rewrite” and get it out there again. It’s good in fact to have quite a few things out there. A publisher may bite.   

3.      Professional jealousy

Either feeling it or being the victim of it can be uncomfortable. It’s not fair is it, that your writing friend got a three book deal and her writing is no better than yours? And it’s annoying when you get the good news from a publisher and your writing friend ignores you.

Force yourself to be glad for your friend. Your time will come.

Make your jealous friend an important part of your launch. You never know, she may be able to network at your event and get some good leads.  

4.        Running out of ideas

Often when you first start out you have tons of ideas. Then you use them up or decide that they weren’t so good after all.

Remember there are ideas are all around you. Retell an old story by taking a different character’s point of view or bringing it into the 21^st century. Take a walk and look at what folk are doing, Lots of stories there as swell. Or try a writing prompt. There are various books around full of them and you can often find them on social media.

5.      “I’m going to write a novel one day”

Says your non-writing friend.

Oh so many assumptions here: that it’s easy, that anyone can do it and that you will be pleased to read the end product of someone right at the beginning of a writing career.

Could you play devil’s advocate here?  Show a real interest. Ask them how they’ll find the time, have they planned the novel out yet, have they done any research. If they ask if you’ll look at it say that you don’t have time but point them towards someone you know who edits.  If you do that yourself discuss your rates. You might offer mates’ rates but be clear that you must make it worth your while.      

Permission to Write

 

You have permission to call yourself a writer as soon as you start to take yourself seriously as a writer. This may be when you’ve written a substantial amount and / or established a writing routine and / or acquired a writing space. Or become published.

When I eventually acquired my own writing room I used to leave the door a little ajar if it was okay to disturb me. It was firmly closed if it was not.  Now that it’s just my OH and me it’s simpler;  if I’m in my room I’m writing. Some interruptions are justified, others aren’t. He knows the score.  These days if the door is shut it means I’m on a Zoom call.

Another friend had a similar routine. She lived in the countryside where people rarely locked doors and you didn’t so much knock as call out “It’s only me” as they walked in through the back door. She used to shut the porch door if she didn’t want to be disturbed.

So giving yourself time for writing and calling yourself a writer is reasonably clear cut.

But at which point do you allow yourself to call it your day job?

I slipped into the academic world almost accidentally. I started writing seriously and then discovered the Writers Register, run by the Continuing Education department of the University of Southampton.  I met people who pointed me to the annual writers’ conference, run at Winchester University. There they were advertising a MA in Writing for Children. Fantastic. A few years after I got my MA I started doing a PhD in Creative and Critical Writing.  As that came to an end I realised how much I enjoyed the academic life and got myself a job as a university lecturer.

I worked at the University of Salford from 2007 to 2016, part of the time as programme leader for three programmes and as senior lecturer. I have still have an email account with them and still do a few hours’ work each year. I was employed as a lecturer in creative writing - and research meant writing and writing about writing. I even had a sabbatical that enabled me to complete a novel and do research that fed into four others.  There are another two planned. And get this: no one would bat an eye-lid if I spent a couple of hours working on my novel, on my work computer, in my office on the campus. “Work” might also involve a visit to the Holocaust centre near Nottingham or the Wiener Library in London.

Already the MA and the PhD not only gave me permission to spend time writing but actually demanded it. Rigour imposed deadlines. I’d paid quite a bit for this so it had belter jolly well work. The two frameworks also gave me permission to concentrate on the quality of the writing itself and not worry about whether it was commercial or not. Yes, I certainly had to recognise the commercial market especially in my teaching, but I could work beyond it.

Someone asked me recently what my ambition in writing was.  Sure, I‘d like the three book deal, a six figure advance and the fame and glory that went with that. Maybe I’d treat myself to a book- shaped swimming pool.

But would I really want that? It seems to me that once that happens you no longer have the time to write. You become busy in events and meetings.  

My writing has been endorsed: by the MA, the PhD and a respectable number of publications.  However the writing itself hasn’t produced a living wage. The years as a senior lecture were well paid and have contributed to a decent pension. That coupled with a pension from an early teaching career,  the state pension and some extra bits and pieces I’d saved, a continued drip-feed earnings from writing , make for a reasonable income. I have what I want.

So, I have permission to spend my time writing. I also work with other writers, attend French German and Spanish conversation groups and a philosophy group and I practise tai chi. I’ve recently taken a playwriting course and I’m also member of a theatre club where we watch plays and then discuss them. I’m also currently taking a marketing course. You have to live some life in order to be able to write.

Nevertheless, I must spend about half of what might be described as my working life on writing.

I am so glad that the universe has given me permission to write.         

 

Image by congerdesign from Pixabay     

Students Inspire

Every Thursday I know why I like my job despite all of the incongruities and uncertainties. I meet my two Final Portfolio groups and they actually inspire me. I hope I also inspire them.
All three students who were due to submit did and four out of six came to class. I guess the ones who are committed show in these snow-covered times. One student lives locally- the other three had a commute. The others who did not come in actually did have very good reason – one of them to do with a meter of snow. The local student allowed plenty of time in case the pavements were covered. She actually arrived early and came along to my office. It was good to see her.
The conversation throughout the session was focussed and useful. These students are really learning to critique well. Are they becoming better self-editors? We hope so: this is the point of the exercise.
One student stayed behind for a short chat. She has learnt the networking lesson. She presented herself as a writer to be involved with a history project in her home town. She felt a bit of a fraud: several other people there had many publications to their name. Yet she wasn’t alone. However, there were several other people there who had thinner portfolios.
She held her own, and this has led to other opportunities. She now runs and participates in open mic events. She has some involvement with schools. Her writing is improving apace, too, partly because she is becoming more confident and partly because she is getting even more feed-back now.
I pointed her towards NAWE. They will help her keep her CRB check up to date and then there’s the Public Liability Insurance - £10,00,000 of it. NAWE also naturally provides further networking opportunities.