I am a writer. I am a writer. I am a writer.
Now if I close my eyes and click my heels while I chant that three times, there still will be no words on the paper. The words will get on the paper when I put them there, because I am a writer.
I’ve been a writer since I was young. I’ve always preferred the written word over any other form of communication. I’ve even had a few professional articles published (both as a law student and a practicing attorney). But I’ve never had any of my creative work published anywhere (except on blogs) and so, in the past, when I’ve said “I’m a writer,†I’ve felt like I needed to qualify it or something. I’d go on about how I’ve been working on the same novel for almost 5 years or how I’ve been talking about writing a particular book (different than the novel) for at least 15. The problem is that when I talk about these things, try to justify why I think of myself as a writer, I’m not really writing.
So no more wasting time trying to justify why I think I am a writer. No more feeling like I need to qualify myself as an unpublished creative writer. That’s all done with. I am a writer. And fair warning, I’ve got a lot to say.