Writer Wordart (Photo credit: MarkGregory007)

What am I? A writer? An author? Aspiring or actual?

In an earlier post I mentioned the issue of “aspiring writer” versus just “writer”, and chose to refer to myself as aspiring, because I’m not yet published.

Joel Friedlander has a different point of view, described in his post From Writer to Author to Publisher to Marketer. He says that we are a writer when we start writing, and we become an author when we’ve finished writing a book. Makes sense. I’ll go with his definition of author. Of course his main point is that self-publishers have to also become publishers and marketers (although if the progression is from author to publisher and then marketer, I would have reversed the evolution image at the top of the article 8^).

Now this third article I hesitated to link, as the profanity and innuendo are over the top for my tastes (definitely NSFW). But if you don’t mind those, it’s hilarious. More importantly, it’s the inspiration for my post, so I have to give credit where it’s due. So with no further ado: 25 Realizations Writers Need To Have. Point #24 is what really hit me (and to a lesser extent #1 and #23, as well as some of the comments).

Storytelling is the heart of what we do, at least as fiction writers. The medium we use to tell the story is a separate issue, with each medium requiring its own particular skills. So from now on I’ll refer to myself as a storyteller.

What do you think is best? Aspiring writer, writer, author, storyteller, none of the above?

PS: Yes I know I said once-a-week posts. But I already have something planned for Monday, and I wanted to send this out now. Let’s call it once a week on Monday, plus whenever else I feel like it.

Related articles

• ‘Aspiring Author’, really? (sophieetallis.wordpress.com)
• Writer? Or Aspiring Writer? (mattswritingcorner.wordpress.com)
• What Paulo Coelho Can Teach You About Storytelling & Writing (rohitbhargava.com)