Question: Do you write full-time or part-time? Do you write every day?

I hear this question a lot, or others that are asking the same basic thing. It is interesting to me that most of the time this is question I get from other writers, not readers. Sometimes it feels like there is some kind of imagined hierarchy among us writers that helps define our role and value as a writer. Now, this may just be my imagination, but it sure feels real sometimes. It helps us understand our “place” in the rankings and feels kind of like those times back in school when they lined us up in the order of our grade point averages. That, in many ways, defined us as students. This question often is used to define us as writers. It helps give us the correct label. Label? My goodness…as if creating good stories isn’t enough pressure!

“Do you write every day? Even holidays? Is writing your primary income? Do you have a set number of words or pages you write every day? Are you a real writer?”

Before I go further, let me openly state that yesterday was “Day 2” of my challenge to write a blog post every day for thirty days, and if you checked, I did not post one yesterday. And no, I did not even write a post yesterday. In fact, I didn’t write anything yesterday other than a few notes and updates to my list of things to do this week. Does that mean I am not a “real writer”? Between you and me, I don’t care.

There are great advantages to writing every day. The more we write, the better at it we can become. But like anything else, there isn’t a guaranteed connection between time and ability. If I spend time every day swinging a bat at a ball I may end up hitting more of them, unless I spend that time just goofing off and not really paying attention and working at it. So, writing everyday may be important, or maybe not. It isn’t enough to define anyone. Is it a good idea? Sure. Is it something to pressure yourself with and feel guilty about if you don’t do it? Nope.

I had intended on posting yesterday because of that challenge I gave myself. But it was such a pretty day outside. The garden needed cleaning, brush needed to be picked up, and the idea of spending an entire day without logging in to anything just sounded nice. So, no, I did not write yesterday. But don’t misunderstand. I spent hours arguing with a few characters about the stories they are telling me. While I frightened the rabbits out of the brush pile in the backyard, I let my mind wander down its own rabbit trails and begin putting the pieces in place for writing I will do later. Did I physically sit down and “write”? No. Does that mean I’m not a “real” writer? As I said above, between you and me, I don’t care.

I just don’t care for labels, whether for politics, religion, race, ethnicity, or writing. Labels don’t tell me anything meaningful. Instead of giving me a label for someone, let me spend some time with them. Let me talk with them. Let me see how many balls they hit. Let me read what they have written. And even then, I have no real need to label them. I don’t see the point.

In my view, labels are for people who don’t want to really understand others. They don’t want to think. All they want is to use their opinion to somehow rank everyone else: good, bad, friend, enemy, for me, against me. For writers, maybe it’s something like, “Which of us is the better writer?”, defining “better” by something easy like time, instead of something more difficult like the words we have written. Besides, the whole “better” thing seems rather silly to me anyway.

Writing is difficult. The most difficult part is dealing with all of the perceptions and expectations of what others believe it means to “be” a writer.

I did not write yesterday. I am a writer.