When You Become a “Real” Writer
Do you feel like a “real” writer? Many writers don’t. Not until they have a book published and can’t point to the shelf in the bookstore as proof.
I felt that way for a long time. I believed that I needed validation from the publishing industry to call myself a “real” writer.
Now I have a book I can point to on the bookstore shelf.
But this big publishing moment in my writing journey hadn’t transformed me the way I thought it would.
Because—somewhere along the line—I had already begun to think of myself as a “real” writer.
When? I wondered? And how did that happen?
It had been a gradual process, I realized, and it had nothing to do with a publishing deal. It had everything to do with my confidence. I am a good writer, whether I have a book on that shelf or not. I came to believe that because I kept working on my writing. The more I developed my craft, the more I learned about how to write a good story, the more I practiced, the more I felt like a “real” writer.
I don’t know what that point is for everyone, when they’ve worked enough at their writing to finally feel “real”. I don’t even know what, exactly, that point was for me. What I do know is how worthwhile all my work, effort and learning was, when I did realize yes, I am a real writer.
Just like you.