Are you a writer?

2

Comments

  • midnight tunes
    midnight tunes Posts: 96
    some may be shadow artists....poets, writers, musicians=artists no??
    love is free
  • xmascleanlove
    xmascleanlove Posts: 55
    i don't consider myself a writer. i'm a slacker : )
    if you're a pot smoker and you don't own a ukulele you're fuckin up...but then once you get a ukulele you might end up moving to a guitar because its a gateway instrument you know
    ~ EV 6/25/03
  • Heatherj43
    Heatherj43 Posts: 1,254
    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".
    Save room for dessert!
  • casper leblanc
    casper leblanc Posts: 1,246
    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
    casper leblanc Posts: 1,246
    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
    FinsburyParkCarrots Seattle, WA Posts: 12,223
    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
    FinsburyParkCarrots Seattle, WA Posts: 12,223
    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." :D

    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
    Ms. Haiku Washington DC Posts: 7,390
    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 . . .
    There is no such thing as leftover pizza. There is now pizza and later pizza. - anonymous
    The risk I took was calculated, but man, am I bad at math - The Mincing Mockingbird
  • FinsburyParkCarrots
    FinsburyParkCarrots Seattle, WA Posts: 12,223
    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
    Ms. Haiku Washington DC Posts: 7,390
    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?
    There is no such thing as leftover pizza. There is now pizza and later pizza. - anonymous
    The risk I took was calculated, but man, am I bad at math - The Mincing Mockingbird
  • casper leblanc
    casper leblanc Posts: 1,246
    FinsburyParkCarrots wrote:
    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." :D

    Nail on the head. Definitly.
  • EvilToasterElf
    EvilToasterElf Posts: 1,119
    Their aren't any poets left, nobody can live off poetry, their are starving authors - Dan Brown - and creative writing teachers
  • grooveamatic
    grooveamatic Posts: 1,374
    EvilToasterElf wrote:
    Their aren't any poets left, nobody can live off poetry, their are starving authors - Dan Brown - and creative writing teachers

    Maya Angelou could live off of poetry. Bad poetry, but nonetheless.

    Is Corso still alive? I bet he could live off royalties.
    .........................................................................
  • soulsinging
    soulsinging Posts: 13,202
    ive written with some success in the past. but i seem to lack that drive or ambition to really be a writer. im not dedicated or focused enough to really be a writer right now, i have to worry about how im going to eat and whatnot first. ive always enjoyed writing and it would be wonderful to be published one day, but odds of that are prety slim. i havent written anything in a long time... but i've always felt if i really threw myself into it... i just might be able to make it. a few people even told me the rough draft of my law school personal statement reads like it's right out of a good novel.

    *edit* i meant to talk about... the subject thread reminded me of a line from one of the greatets movies about writers ever (wonder boys)... rip torn behind a podium saying "I... am a writer!"
  • Ms. Haiku
    Ms. Haiku Washington DC Posts: 7,390
    That's it! Enough of the self-conscious no-label-applies-to-me boohoo-ism. I'm your heroine! I'm going to be the resident poet if no one else will grab that title and just go with it. I'm a poet, I'm a poet, I'm a poet!
    Bibliobella the Superhero Poet.
    There is no such thing as leftover pizza. There is now pizza and later pizza. - anonymous
    The risk I took was calculated, but man, am I bad at math - The Mincing Mockingbird
  • EvilToasterElf
    EvilToasterElf Posts: 1,119
    Bibliobella wrote:
    That's it! Enough of the self-conscious no-label-applies-to-me boohoo-ism. I'm your heroine! I'm going to be the resident poet if no one else will grab that title and just go with it. I'm a poet, I'm a poet, I'm a poet!
    Bibliobella the Superhero Poet.

    Oh so you're one of those poet snobs huh? :)
  • soulsinging
    soulsinging Posts: 13,202
    Bibliobella wrote:
    That's it! Enough of the self-conscious no-label-applies-to-me boohoo-ism. I'm your heroine! I'm going to be the resident poet if no one else will grab that title and just go with it. I'm a poet, I'm a poet, I'm a poet!
    Bibliobella the Superhero Poet.

    im with you. this grunge-style, "im way too humble to claim im a real artist when so many people deserve it more" to me reeks more of insecurity than anything else.
  • Being Enlightened
    Being Enlightened Posts: 5,746
    Bibliobella wrote:
    That's it! Enough of the self-conscious no-label-applies-to-me boohoo-ism. I'm your heroine! I'm going to be the resident poet if no one else will grab that title and just go with it. I'm a poet, I'm a poet, I'm a poet!
    Bibliobella the Superhero Poet.

    :D You Are! :) I picture you in the typecast librarian look: long skirt, white blouse buttoned to the neck, reading specks, hair all tied up in a bun, quietly policing the isles at the library......but, alas, an idea takes hold and behold, she morphs into Bibliobella the Superhero Poet, sexy and seductive, the zipper at the side of her skirt is opened further, revealing a sumptuous thigh, the buttons on her blouse pop open just enough to reveal her ample bosom, the glasses fly off and her long, shiny locks blow in the ghost winds, pen and paper in hand......oh yes, she makes me want to write!!!!!!! :D;)



    I write. To me, that makes me a writer/poet (notice I did not say a great writer/poet :D ). I do not do it to feed myself or to become published but purely for the joy of writing. My payoff is that I get to articulate things that I feel and in knowing that sometimes, what I have to say moves someone else, or even inspires them to write as well. :) It's not about how many people know my name or if I'm going to be paid, it's a labour of love. Pure and simple and true. I love to write! :)
    Forget your perfect offering, there is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in. - Leonard Cohen
  • FinsburyParkCarrots
    FinsburyParkCarrots Seattle, WA Posts: 12,223
    Bibliobella wrote:
    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?

    Dah James Brown soul brothahs. "Ah fili good, ah knew dat ah would now". ;););)
  • FinsburyParkCarrots
    FinsburyParkCarrots Seattle, WA Posts: 12,223
    soulsinging wrote:
    im with you. this grunge-style, "im way too humble to claim im a real artist when so many people deserve it more" to me reeks more of insecurity than anything else.

    One should be secure in the notion that one is not much good to start with, and that one should strive to learn one's craft to become better. That's not grunge-like false humility. That's the starting point of knowledge, to perceive one's ignorance or one's false self-opinions.

    The next stage of knowledge and self-fulfillment is in developing a true, informed opinion of how to advance in relation to other people's applauded standards. No man is an island, said John Donne, and no one is a writer until one's words are felt to change society to a noticeable degree. To be a writer is to be a communicator of often unspeakable, radical and dangerous truths. One must learn one's trade to be able to achieve this. It takes an interloper's skill to interrogate received perceptions of what it is to be a human being, and to rescue language from dominant ideological misrepresentations of identity, experiential reality and our society. To change society one must engage with it: To learn one's craft and subvert it from within to find new ways of seeing and speaking.



    ;)

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