Is there such a thing as an aspiring writer?
“I’m an aspiring writer!” *beams*
“So… you’re hoping… to write? Don’t you already write?”
“Yeah, but…”
While perusing Twitter, Facebook, or the blog-o-sphere I constantly find profile’s stating a person is an ‘aspiring writer’, but this bothers me. Not because I think I’m a better writer than other people or I don’t think they’re really writers, but simply because I don’t understand how one can aspire to be a writer.
I mean, doesn’t writing something like… a poem, a song, a journal entry, a novel, a blog post, anything count as writing? So, if you’re writing something, doesn’t that already make you a writer?
If that’s the case then wouldn’t aspiring writers be people don’t write? And if you truly are an aspiring writer (aka someone who doesn’t write), what are you waiting for? Why not start writing today? This second?! What’s stopping you? You don’t need to build up muscle mass or vocabulary or anything at all. There’s no prep work because…
“The best way to become a writer is simply to write.”
In that case, if people aren’t actually aspiring writers, then what are they? Well, that depends on the type of writing they’re doing. The most common objective and classic type of writer is one who writes novels and wishes to publish them. However, that’s not to say that’s the only type of writer. Thousands of writers don’t write novels. Some are poets, song writers, journalists, bloggers, and more. These are the terms we need to utilize when saying we’re aspiring to be something.
For example:
- I don’t call myself an aspiring writer because I already write. Rather, I aspire to write and publish many novels, but as I am yet unpublished and have no completed writing multiple novels I consider myself to be an aspiring novelist.
- On the other hand, if I wanted to write and publish articles in a newspaper or magazine or online journal, I would consider myself to be an aspiring journalist.
Both are writers, but they’re far more specific. Using these titles also makes it clear which type of writing skill you are currently working on and trying to tone in order to reach your goal of being a novelist or journalist or poet or whatever type of writer you want to be.
Though, this is just my opinion on aspiring writers. Maybe you see the title differently. Let me know in the comments below.
And check out my discussion from last week:
“Romanticizing the Apocalypse“
Melanie Noell Bernard 
I love your thoughts here! What a great and positive way to look at things. Thank you for being inspiring, I am not going to call myself an aspiring writer anymore!
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😀 I’m glad to hear you like my thoughts, and that you agree with my opinion. Best of luck being a writer!
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Thank you same to you! I can’t wait to see what comes of it.
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Very interesting. I love the way you write, of course I don’t much understand some of them. Its not exactly that my English is not good enough, but I guess English being your first language and then I believe as you are highly educated your tone of writing too keep up with your level of knowledge 🙂
Well I do not write that I am an aspiring writer, but a writer although I am not one of the real classy writers. I started writing on a page on Face Book and then got on to the web site and now I happen to write a few lines of poetry too. But still I don’t consider myself as a real poet, not yet. I wonder if I will be a real poet some day. But that’s a detail. I started to write as I wanted another path away from my mental health site, as relaxation !
Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us. Do keep on writing and I hope you publish those novels one day. Best of Luck and God Bless 🙂 ❤
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Thank you for sharing! Even if you don’t yet consider yourself a poet in English, would you consider yourself a poet in your native language as you know your language perhaps better than English? ^.^
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I do have another site that I am writing poetry. I am afraid now English the second language has won over my Sinhalese native language, as I have been working as an ESL tutor in TAFE Queensland for many years 🙂
In Sri-Lanka we study Sinhalese, or Tamil for those from India formerly, as well as English side by side from the very first years. I am from the old school where the schools had British standards as the last were the British who ruled. Although our country is a developing country our literacy rate is very high and many go abroad for higher qualifications as well as higher studies even to the universities itself as spaces are limited. Thank you so much for taking an interest on me ❤
This is my poetry site: https://deepanilamani.com/
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I used to label myself as an ‘aspiring writer’, because that’s what I thought I was. It was only until I discussed it with another blogger that I realised, I was already a writer! I write creatively in my own time, I write book reviews and I’ve even written newspaper articles. How much more of a writer could I be? I swiftly removed the ‘aspiring’ from my bio after that 🙂
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😀 Thank you for sharing, Judith! I’m glad you realized you were already a writer and I hope we can do the same for a lot more people! ^.^
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Same. I refer to myself as “writer” because I have written novels, shorts, and blog. I’ve authored books, but they weren’t traditionally published so I guess I could also be “an author who would enjoy someday being traditionally published”.
I think in our short-form social media culture, the words “aspiring writer” are so popular because
A: They are punchy and sound good on a Twitter profile
B: Everyone loves to root for an underdog, and people want to show they have dreams and goals.
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That is an interesting concept, but I don’t fully understand why you would consider yourself an aspiring writer if you’ve already pubbed. Aren’t you already an author then? And do you still have ‘aspiring writer’ on your social media profiles as someone who has pubbed?
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I never used the term because I’ve always believed if you’re writing and creating works, then you’re a “writer” plain and simple. I think of an “author” as someone who writes professionally as a career, but even that word has different meanings to different people.
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I agree. It drives me crazy when people label themselves as aspiring writers.
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Yes, you need qualifiers. In fact, you are a published writer since you have a blog, right? If you had published your novel in your blog, agents and publishers would have problem with it because it’s already published. And you’re right, we aspire to publish our novels.
On the other hand, my wife gave me a t-shirt for my birthday that says “writer” and I feel like I’m not worthy to wear it yet.
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Ah. I am a published blogger, yes, but not a published novelist. They are two very different types of publishing, especially considering the type and style or writing that goes into each platform. Not to mention, agents do not consider ‘blogging’ to be an acceptable, creditable form of published writing, likely because anyone can post to a blog. No one has to approve it for ‘good writing.’
I honestly still feel shame telling people I’m a writer because it has such a negative connotation in society nowadays. People often see writers as lazy people who don’t have real jobs and who don’t need to be taken seriously. Even many authors are still viewed as such and it’s terrible many of us still feel that societal-imposed shame simply because our passion isn’t on the ‘approved’ list of hobbies.
/rant
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Isn’t ironic that agents won’t give you credit for maintaining a blog but if you don’t have one with a certain number of followers, they won’t give you the time of day either?
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Thank you! Finally someone else who understands the irony behind that! They want you to have a gigantic following because they want you to do most of the promotion yourself nowadays (meaning publishers are doing a lot less for authors than they used to), but a blog is ‘amateur.’ 😡
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Yes and then for all the work YOU did, they have the audacity to deduct advertising from your profits.
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Flaws of the modern age publishing industry. It’s a sad time to be a writer. -.-
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It is sad but it can also be very promising as long as you know how to circumvent the shark infested waters of the publishing industry.
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I must not have learned the ways of the open sea yet. :p
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Me neither. But I know it’s possible.
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One of my professors in college used to say this to us all the time. “If you’re in my class, then you’re writing, and if you’re writing, then let me be the first to congratulate you on being a writer! You’re already well ahead of many.” When he finally got it through our thick skulls, we pretty much collectively decided it was one of the most encouraging and liberating things we had heard in college.
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It really is something we need to encourage more. I think many potential authors feel so much self-doubt because society imposes negative views on them about writers to the point where being a writer causes much shame. Or being a writer requires some form of validation, often publication, but that’s not true. I wish there was something we could do to change the way society views writers, but until we figure that out, all we can do is support writers in achieving their dreams of being whatever type of writer they want to be. Thank you for sharing! ^.^
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I don’t use the term for much the same reasons you give, but I do give people the benefit of the doubt and feel that they are actually saying, “I’m an aspiring published novelist”. I have a couple of unpublished novels so I could use that last version, but I usually just say, “I’m a writer who’s waiting to be published.”
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I would agree. When I see someone’s profile stating they are an ‘aspiring writer’, I too assume they are aspiring to write novels. However, I don’t want to exclude all other types of writers because perhaps that person really wants to be a journalist (which is often times a more acceptable form of writing in society’s eyes, but not by much.)
To be honest, I don’t say much about my writing because I, like many writers, have succumbed to society’s pressure. I am embarrassed to be a writer because it’s not a ‘legitimate career choice.’ However, that doesn’t mean I’ve stopped. I just plan to prove everyone wrong. :p
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