Are you a writer?

Ms. Haiku

because writer's need to write, and by process of elimination, if you feel the need to write, then you are a writer? Or are you a writer to fill some other well of need?

FinsburyParkCarrots

I write. A writer is something different: A professional.

grooveamatic

FinsburyParkCarrots wrote:

I write. A writer is something different: A professional.

I couldn't have put it any better. My thoughts exactly. Although I often suspect Fins is a professional, slumming it with us for kicks.

trappedinmyradio

FinsburyParkCarrots wrote:

I write. A writer is something different: A professional.

I hack away at language. A writer is one who gets paid, exactly!

twin2

FinsburyParkCarrots wrote:

I write. A writer is something different: A professional.

I agree with this as well.

pacifier

I write. I feel the need to write. But I could never consider myself a writer, not even if I wrote 5 top selling books and made millions from it. I don't know what makes a writer.

twin1

pacifier wrote:

I write. I feel the need to write. But I could never consider myself a writer, not even if I wrote 5 top selling books and made millions from it. I don't know what makes a writer.

No. I am not a writer. In a way I think more like Pacifier about it. I would feel like people were being ripped off if they purchased my offerings. I think some people have the "gift" and others are wanna be's that like to express themselves, like me...

depopulationINC

I enjoy writing. I search myself for potential lyrics. It is a great release. Saying what perplexes your mind is therapy of sorts. Its like talking to a friend, but you can say anything. I also find that putting it into form/structure helps me organize and go through my thoughts...to delve deeper into them (the therapy thing). It relaxes me.

eMMI

I am no writer.
I do write tough.
but I am no writer.

writing to me is an excellent way of expressing myself.
like said earlier, it's like talking to a friend.
but some things are too painful to be said out loud. to me.
so I write.

writing helps me to focus my thoughts.
and it helps me to release.

I love trying to find new ways of expressing the same thing.
you know, other words and sort.
especially with English (which is not my motherlanguage) it's fascinatingly captivating. (I've discovered that I like more of my English stuff than the Finnish.. )

but I am no writer.
maybe someday it'd be fun to publish something.
but. I ain't professional.

Ms. Haiku

Are you a poet because poets need to write, and by process of elimination, if you feel the need to write poetry, then you are a poet? Or are you a poet to fill some other well of need?

FinsburyParkCarrots

I write poetry. Same as everyone here. None of us are poets. But we'd like to be.

pearlmutt

admit it fins, you're that snickets fella aren't ya?

EvilToasterElf

Bibliobella wrote:

Are you a poet because poets need to write, and by process of elimination, if you feel the need to write poetry, then you are a poet? Or are you a poet to fill some other well of need?

Poets don't write poetry in their spare time, poets write poetry, they live poetry, they practice the art of blind observation, they're always looking for something, but they don't know what it is until after they've found it

FinsburyParkCarrots

What's a snicket? Like Snickers? A thicket of vicars? A slick rickety ticking cricket wicket clicking its thick schtick at a brick? What's a snicket? Is it the Wicked Wilson Pickett?

Ms. Haiku

Am I the only self-identified poet on the board, then? I've never been paid for a poem. I agree with ETE that it's just how I live, I see a moment, any moment as a poem. If I write it then I feel more complete, my thoughts have been ordered, and I can share it with others. If I don't write it, and share, then it's not as if it festers inside like a sore, but more that a void grows bigger.

Ms. Haiku

FinsburyParkCarrots wrote:

None of us are poets.

I'm sad from this. booooohooooo

EvilToasterElf

Well the label itself is kind of semantics anyway. However, Ray Bradbury was a writer. He woke up every morning and put a word on a piece of paper. Then he wrote until there was nothing left. Hemmingway spent a piece of everyday for a few years inside a cafe writing short stories and novellas. I don't have nearly that level of commitment yet. Until I do I would always qualify writer or poet with the word aspiring when I mention it.

pearlmutt

Lemony Snickets! (whoever came up with that name, kuddos, it's just about the funnest thing to say, lemony snickets, sounds like a cookie -- yes, i'll have a dozen of your lemony snickets)

i know you belong in the children's section with the rest of us.

Ali

I try to write every day.Like writing original things and I've been offered a gig a long time ago with a pub co....a well-known one.They wanted me to pay them 300$ to get started.That to me isn't professional.I decided to keep publishing myself and othrs soon to follow.I consider myself a writer.I also wrote a play ,CAPTURED,which you are all invited to,Date pending as far as the reading goes.I consider myself an indie.And if you say,my fellow poets,you dont consider yourself a writer,youre not giving yourself credit as a talented and incredible human being...because the poems on this board influence each other's lives and your own,most importantly.



allison vigh

twin1

Ali wrote:

...because the poems on this board influence each other's lives and your own,most importantly.



allison vigh

Thanks Ali! That is sweet. I do agree that you never know when you are influencing someone else, hopefully in a positive way or at the very least to learn and grow.

Ali

twin1 wrote:

Thanks Ali! That is sweet. I do agree that you never know when you are influencing someone else, hopefully in a positive way or at the very least to learn and grow.

true.to learn and grow.very true.

midnight tunes

some may be shadow artists....poets, writers, musicians=artists no??

xmascleanlove

i don't consider myself a writer. i'm a slacker : )

Heatherj43

FinsburyParkCarrots wrote:

I write. A writer is something different: A professional.

I have a book that is titled "The Right to Write" by Julia Cameron. She talks about people who write always saying things like "someday I want to be a writer" etc. She then explains that YOU are a writer if you write!
So, since then I have considered myself a writer. The part that interests me most is the fact that my grammar is bad, my punctuation abilities is even worse, yet the creativity and expressions in my writing is really the meat and potatoes and many people enjoy my writings in spite of my lack of proper grammar. I hope to publish one day and I would hope my message would be for others to go ahead and write regardless of their limitations.
Hell yeah, I am a writer!!! I write from my life experiences and my writings have often been called "heartfelt".

casper leblanc

FinsburyParkCarrots wrote:

I write. A writer is something different: A professional.

I earn my living by putting words on paper, but I'm not a writer. I'm a journalist, but I don't even consider myself to be that. I talk to people, I listen and try to translate their message and - more importantly - their personality to paper by using their and my own words. According to the tax administration, I am a writer, which is pretty interesting financially speaking. But other than that, what do they now, right? Though writing is a big part of being a journalist, I don't think I could ever be a writer.

I've got a lot of people fooled, that I do now. I may even have fooled myself.

casper leblanc

just wanted to add: I'm a journalist in the arts, so I've interviewed a couple of writers. I'm quite sure there is something that defines them, but I really can't put my finger on it.

FinsburyParkCarrots

Heatherj43 wrote:

I have a book that is titled "The Right to Write" by Julia Cameron. She talks about people who write always saying things like "someday I want to be a writer" etc. She then explains that YOU are a writer if you write!

She would say that. She wants you to buy her book!

FinsburyParkCarrots

pearlwax wrote:

I earn my living by putting words on paper, but I'm not a writer. I'm a journalist, but I don't even consider myself to be that. I talk to people, I listen and try to translate their message and - more importantly - their personality to paper by using their and my own words. According to the tax administration, I am a writer, which is pretty interesting financially speaking. But other than that, what do they now, right? Though writing is a big part of being a journalist, I don't think I could ever be a writer.

I've got a lot of people fooled, that I do now. I may even have fooled myself.

I love lively debate on the arts. For me it's very healthy and essential when in good spirit, as we see here.

Frank Zappa said something funny once. "Music journalism is people who can't write interviewing people who can't talk for people who can't read."

I think writers are people who can afford to dine perpetually at endless Book Club Luncheons. Poets are dead people who have written poetry.

Ms. Haiku

FinsburyParkCarrots wrote:

Poets are dead people who have written poetry.

Dead how many times? So, if by some way, and I don't know how this can happen, I can prove that I've lived before, and I write poetry now, that means I'm a poet. Who can tell me good ways to figure out if I've lived before? I'm game to this game . . .

FinsburyParkCarrots

Bibliobella wrote:

Dead how many times? So, if by some way, and I don't know how this can happen, I can prove that I've lived before, and I write poetry now, that means I'm a poet. Who can tell me good ways to figure out if I've lived before? I'm game to this game . . .

Ah, it's for others to say you're a poet.

However, in medieval Ireland there was a bardic class called the fili. They were poets by patronage and thus by distinction from jesters as distinguished personal entertainers to a chieftain. They knew they were poets because they didn't starve.

Ms. Haiku

FinsburyParkCarrots wrote:

Ah, it's for others to say you're a poet.

However, in medieval Ireland there was a bardic class called the fili. They were poets by patronage and thus by distinction from jesters as distinguished personal entertainers to a chieftain. They knew they were poets because they didn't starve.

Yes, but what about "I think therefore I am" business. Isn't that right up your alleyway of thinking? So, if I think I am a poet, then I am a poet. Yes, that's right, I agree with me! I want to be included in the present day Fili! What is that group called?