Writers

I'm not a big fan of writers. That sounds strange, but there are reasons for it. I love people who write, and I love authors, but I hate hate hate writers. As a word, there is nothing wrong with a writer. To describe myself quickly to someone, I would tell them in a heartbeat that I am a writer, because writing is what I do, it's who I am. But telling someone that you are a writer leaves a lot of uncertainty about what it is that you do. I have had to explain far too many times that, no, I do not have any interest in writing non-fiction, in going into journalism, so on and so forth. This confuses people, because they don't understand the difference when you say that you are a writer. And that's fine. It's understandable.

I have no interest in being a writer. I want to be an author, a hundred and ten percent. But if you tell someone you are an author, they ask what you've written, and then you have to explain that no, I am not published, no, I do not currently have something going through the system, no, I do not have anything ready to publish. "But why did you say you're an author then?" they ask. "You say author, I think someone who's published." And that right there is the problem. What I have done should not define me as a writer versus an author. What I write should.

So why is it that I hate writers? From the sounds of it, it's a very general term that covers many factors, and it is, but it is also a word that all too clearly defines one set group of people, and a set of people that I want absolutely nothing to do with.

I think that every group of people has a small subsection of themselves that this applies to. The most obvious to me is a guitarist versus a guitar player. A guitar player is someone who plays guitar, obviously, and they may or may not be any good at it. A guitarist is someone who lives and breathes guitar, who understands its intricacies, who sees it as an extension of themselves. "Well great," I hear you say, "so a guitarist is just someone who takes it one step beyond." No. A guitarist is someone who understands. A guitarist is someone who's been there. A guitar player is someone who sees the guitar as a tool, and therefore there are set ways to use it, right and wrong ways, and if you aren't doing it the right way, then you're out of your mind. A guitar player can not appreciate what you do with your own guitar if it does not follow their expectations. A guitarist is someone who looks at what you're doing and says either "Hey man, that's really cool, can you tell me about that?" or "Hey man, that's really cool, have you tried doing this?"

It's a distinction that is far more subtle than it sounds. You look at it like that, and it seems so obvious that it could never be mistaken, and yet it happens every day, in everything. And the weirdest part is that the guitarist knows, but the guitar player doesn't. The guitar player flocks to groups, surrounds themselves in like minded people, further cementing that his way is right. The guitarist moves from person to person, interacting with them on a personal level, learning them, and constantly grows.

The difference between a writer and an author is the same. I have tried so many times to find writing groups which I can be a part of, and every time I have found those groups to be close minded and inward facing. They do not accept that there can be other ways of writing. There are rules, they say, and regulations, and they must be followed. You can not have this in your story, and you can not do this, so on and so forth until their rules are so specific that every story is the same, and then they do not understand why there is so little originality in the world of story telling. Yet they can not see that they themselves are the ones putting those same stories over and over into the world.

It is for this reason that I am not a writer. And I have come across writers who had no idea what I meant when I said this, pushed me away, continued on their writing ways, and I do not hold this against them for being this way. I can learn from these people all the same. I have also come across people who called themselves writers, not knowing what it meant, but as I talked to them, I realized that they were more than that. And when I explained to them the difference in what I said, they knew what I was saying, and like me, were relieved to find someone who understood.

A writer looks at their favorite author and emulates them.

An author looks at their favorite author, and their favorite author, and all the authors around them, and all the authors who inspired them, and then takes all of their favorite bits and pieces and takes them in so that they might write as they will.

I choose to be an author.