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If you call yourself a “Writer” but no one reads your stuff…
are you still a “writer?”
I recently wrote an article with a similar question: If a fat girl loses weight, but no one notices, has she really lost the weight?
I guess the same answer can go for both questions: It depends.
Did I lose weight to get compliments? Maybe.
Did I lose weight to look better? Maybe.
Did I lose weight to be healthier? Yes.
Did I lose weight because I have no appetite? We have a winner!
Why do I write? A writer friend and first mentor, Juilene Osborne-McKnight once called it “the fire in the belly.” If you have to write, then you’re a writer.”
My answer to that question was: Yes. I’d been writing for too long to stop now.
Once asked her writing class, she asked,“Do you see your story as a movie, spreading out in your mind?” And, that was a yes, also.
I was very nervous the first time I read something I wrote in her class — she was a professional. And she was beautiful. I was a struggling single mother and a tired RN who got up at 5 AM before work to have time to write.
But she was gracious about my reading — an essay about getting a cancer diagnosis. The subject made…
