What it means to be a writer

If someone asks me what I do for a living, I tell them I’m a writer.

It took a long time to get here. Very few people can actually make their living as a writer. Most writers do something else to support themselves.

Despite the fact that I’m was trained as a mathematician, my first job was as a writer. A technical writer, writing software documentation.

Eventually I became a technology analyst. Analysts make money by analyzing market conditions, writing reports, providing advice, and making speeches. Writing is an important part of that work, but few analysts would describe themselves a writers.

At the tail end of that, I started writing books. At that point, I really began to think of myself, primarily, as a writer. And I was in my fifties, several decades into my career. That’s how long it took to consider myself a writer by profession.

When I quit the analyst gig, I became a full-time writer, author, editor, and ghostwriter. Still not a pure writer, but that’s about as close as I could get. And I count myself lucky to make my living in and around the occupation of writing.

The writer’s mindset

Are you primarily a writer? Do you want to be one? Here are some qualities that I think define me as a writer, and that got me to this point. Do they fit your idea of yourself as a writer?

• Spend part of every day writing. If you don’t write regularly, you’re not a writer. Writing demands practice, just like any other artistic activity.
• Put your work in front of an audience. If you won’t show your writing to people, it doesn’t really count. You must visualize an audience to make your writing effective. And putting that writing in front of an audience provides you with the feedback to grow and improve.
• Work with an editor. When I was a technical writer, editors reviewed my work. The editors and experts I worked with as an analyst shaped my skills and my technique. Book editors critiqued my books. There is no better or faster way to improve your writing than to get directed criticism from an expert.
• Write everything. I write more than books. I write blog posts. I write technical documentation. I write op-eds and articles. I write press releases. Writing in these diverse formats stretches my skill set.
• Be curious about the craft of writing. I don’t just write. I think a lot about writing. When I read, I observe what techniques writers are using and what makes them effective. When I edit, I am endlessly analytical about what works in my clients’ writing and why. I am obsessed with how writers are using AI, because it is profoundly changing how people write and how they read. For me, being a writer means being introspective, because I don’t just want to type words, I want to know what makes them effective.
• Expand my skills set around writing. A writer needs to know how their words will get into print where people will read them. That has made me curious about everything associated with publishing: how publishers decide, how their processes work, and how they compensate writers through advances and royalties. I need to know about blogging, content marketing, scriptwriting, and media. I’m curious about illustrations and design. I sample lots of different writing tools. I observe how teachers teach writing and how well or poorly that works in training excellent writers. Collaboration fascinates me. A real writer’s curiosity doesn’t stop with writing words.
• Get paid. I put serious effort into finding ways to get compensated as a writer. If you want a career as a writer, you need to find a way to make it pay off.

Simply put, I’m obsessive about everything about writing. That quest sustains me. If I cease to write and be curious about writing, please check on me, because it probably means I’m dead or demented.

Yeah, that’s a lot. But I never question whether it’s worth it; I feel it deep in my brain.

How about you?