Are You an Aspiring Writer?

What is a writer? Really? What is the difference between someone who is a writer and someone who isn’t? Where is the line between “aspiring writer” and “writer?” At what point is the word a legitimate answer to the dreaded question, “so what do you do?” Is it when you have won a writing contest? Is it after your 10th accepted short story submission? When your first novel hits store shelves? When the first royalty check cashes? Not until you quit your day job? After your first million?

Just Write?

The “classic” answer is Kurt Vonnegut’s. I paraphrase, but essentially, if you write, you are a writer.

I like this answer in principle. It cuts through the clutter and brings “being a writer” back to the basic act of writing so critical to the label.

That being said, the “you are a writer if you write” answer isn’t exactly the most practical or useful for the person looking for specific guidance. Where are you in relation to your goals? What are the next steps on the path? The clutter-cutting answer can leave the lost, guidance-seeking neurotics among us (raises hand) in the same headspace as the liberal arts major in a calc tutoring session. “What can I help you with?” Nope, I don’t even understand enough of what’s going on to form a coherent answer to that question.

What defines “writing,” even? Our day jobs often entail a decent amount of “writing.” Emails, formal letters, reports, presentations. If I didn’t also write stories and blog posts, would I still count?

So, with all of this muddle, what is an aspiring writer to do?

The admonition to “just write” is obvious. You aren’t a writer if you don’t write. But the trick is to write with intention toward your goal, whatever that is. If your goal is a novel, and you are making regular progress on completing it, you are a writer. Ditto a blog, short stories, a self-help book, a memoir. Forward movement is the key.

That idea for a great story that’s been simmering for years, with nothing on paper to show for it? Not quite a writer yet… put some words down, a little every day, and you’re a writer. Stop aspiring already! Allow it to be bad, but allow it to be.

As I mentioned in my post on How To Be a Writer in Real Life, sometimes writing doesn’t have to be writing. Some activity that brings you closer to your goal will fit the bill… with the caveat that the focus ultimately has to be on the writing in the end. Outline. Flesh out a character sketch. Even scroll Pinterest for inspiration for mood and vibe. Then go back to the keyboard. Or pencil, pen, etch-a-sketch, blood-soaked stick… whatever your tools of choice happen to be.

What exactly do you aspire to?

Here’s the part where the admonition to just write breaks down. That’s all well and good if it is the writing itself that gets your motor revved. But I’ll bet a donut that that isn’t exactly what you mean when you say that you’re an aspiring writer. We aspire to other elements beyond the mere act of placing words on paper. Ideally, we aspire that the words that make it to the paper be good. That’s a start. Maybe good enough that someone not my significant other or my mother will actually want to read it. Like, maybe even want to read it enough to trade some dinero for the opportunity? Or, dare one hope, the pleasure?

Every writer is always aspiring. Take a look at your bookshelf. Every name on it stood where you do now. Martin. Rothfuss. Rowling. King. L’Engle. Heinlein. Tolkien. Lewis. Verne. Bronte. Even Dumas. Shakespeare. Cervantes. Picture them as unknown noobs… they were, once. Hard work and dedication and unwavering passion and no small amount of luck made them household names. These people wrote. The ones who we are still lucky enough to have among us, I’m certain, are STILL ASPIRING to the next thing – to finishing the next story, to sharing it with the world.

There is no guarantee of success in any endeavor. But the only guarantee of failure is to not try.

It’s okay to be an aspiring writer…

…but that doesn’t really tell anyone anything. It’s great to be aspiring to finish your first novel… but isn’t it more useful to be working on it? It’s fantastic to be aspiring to getting published, but doesn’t it tell more to say that you’re querying?

The fundamental issue with aspiring, which is the root of why Vonnegut’s definition works, is that it leaves the door open to the temptation to allow aspiring be all that happens. Living in the world of being an aspiring writer treads dangerously close to wishing. Actually making the dream happens takes more than wishing… we have to work, we have to write, we have to take the next steps forward, even if those steps are small on some days.

What do you think? Are you an aspiring writer? Or are you at a point on the path, moving forward to the next step?