What makes a writer?

Writing. Wanting to write. Earning from your writing. These are the conditions by which I assess myself as a writer. What about you?

Photo by Andraz Lazic on Unsplash

Let’s begin.

Since I started writing about 3 months ago, there’s a nagging question in my head.

What makes a writer? Am I a writer?

I have worked previously as a copywriter in a small ad agency. And as a freelance copywriter as well. That was a long time ago. I remember once when a colleague and mentor, pointing to the ad I wrote in the local newspaper, said:

It was an eureka moment for me.

I wrote an ad. It was published. And I got paid for it.

I can’t remember now what led to that statement. I must have voiced my insecurity about being a copywriter. I am prone to self doubt.

Eventually, I ended up where the real money was. Client-side. Sales and Marketing. I could still “write to sell” but then, we had ad agencies and PR firms to do that. It was tedious and time-consuming. There were other, more important matters to deal with than to write. And this urge to write gradually faded.

It wasn’t until just a few months ago, having closed my restaurant and spending all day watching YouTube, that I first noticed a small itch of an urge to write. I tried to put it off, but it kept showing up on Facebook and YouTube as posts and videos. Writers on writing, on becoming a writer.

But there were also videos on AI writing tools that could do that: write for you. All you need to do is ask.

AI tools like NovelCrafter and Sudowrite can knock out 90,000-word novels in a few hours. The pitch is always the same: Volume. If a book makes even a few dollars a month, you can build a good passive income in months. 

So what if your readers don’t like it? There are billions out there. What do you want? Poems? Articles? Blog posts? Just ask.

Burnout writers took to promoting it via affiliate marketing and gently assuring aspiring writers that “It’s OK. You will not lose your creativity.” or “Just use it for brainstorming. Everyone is using it, and you’ll fall behind if you don’t.” You get the picture.

I have to admit; I was curious. I should find out more. Maybe just sign up for the 30-day trial? Just see what happens?

So I used NovelCrafter to generate a short story of about 7000 words. But it was not a story. It was rubbish.

I felt disappointed, but also a sense of relief at the same time. The story had all the parts, but it was a Frankenstein of a tale, like so many broken pieces stitched together by a machine. Clean, logical, boring. It moves, except there was no life. No poetry. No soul.

Unlike books I have read, which made me cry and laughed, and jumped up in exhilaration, “Eugene the gentle Barbarian” could not make it out of my Google drive, much less his quiet village to save the world from vegan vampires.

I also think it misses the point of writing altogether. The idea behind using AI to write is to make money easily, without putting in the effort. Which is understandable, but it is not writing. It is trying to mass produce one-of-a-kind master-pieces.

Then I found Medium

Having struggled with WordPress, I was delighted to find Medium. It was easy to use and navigate, and you get paid for your work. Not much, but that’s not the point.

When I made 21c after publishing 4 articles, I was so happy.

This means I am a writer. Again.

Medium has reignited my confidence and passion to write. After over 30 years, I am now on this path back to where I once started.

But writing is still hard work. And I struggled to come up with ideas all the time.

When my wife and I started taking long walks, some of our conversations became ideas for articles. Talking about what to write seems to help me unblock the words and awaken my muse.

Even now, as I am writing, I am also talking out loud. Sometimes in dialogue, and the conversation often involves more than just me.

I started writing about running the restaurant, recipes that my customers loved. About food that I missed, that my mother used to make. About eating together. Living together.

I started writing about being a father and the joys of watching my children grow up. About my father, who passed away just before I returned to Singapore after the lockdown. About wanting to find my roots and returning to where I came from.

I also started writing about writing.

This will be one of my key focuses going forward. Here on Medium, I will continue to share my thoughts and experiences, especially on becoming a writer. I will write about the journey, the lessons, and the (monetary) rewards. About the need to learn to sell if you want traction beyond the current platform.

I will write about creating products, serving the audience, and delivering value.

So what makes a writer?

Writing.
That is the first qualification. The question is not if you should use AI to write. The question is, can your writer come through in your writing? It’s fine if you are writing an instructional manual for how to install a washing machine, but not if you are writing about your experience as a cancer survivor or as an anxious father waiting for his granddaughter’s arrival at 2 in the morning. So you have to write.

Wanting to write.
This is a strange feeling. A sort of love-hate relationship between you and the writer in you. When Hemmingway said that writing is easy, “…you just need to sit in front of a typewriter and open a vein”, I suspect he was describing this sacrificial struggle.

It can manifest as a fear (writer’s block) or lead you to addiction (alcoholism or drug addiction). It is always demanding. Passionate and fickle; it comes and goes as it pleases. It can make you famous and rich, but also destroy you completely.

It is this wanting, or needing, to write that will bring about a breakthrough to produce a worthy piece. Something only writers understand.

Earning from your writing.
This is arguable but hear me out. Of course, you can write for recreation or fun, but until you earn that first dollar, you can’t really know if you are a writer.

I once read about a writer that when he took a creative writing course at university, the professor told the class that the only way to get an A grade is to show him the cheque for something that they have written and sold.

The writer received a cheque for $25 for an article he wrote for a local magazine. He showed it to the professor and got an A.

“This makes you a writer.”

But why write at all?

This is a personal question that every writer has to answer for themselves.

I cannot think of a more difficult profession to pursue. It’s a creative process, and creativity does not bend easily to the creator’s will. You cannot force it. It has to come forth on its own, and in its own time. And how difficult that is when you have a copy deadline at 10am the next day.

You don’t have to if you don’t want to. Why go through all that trouble to just make a few bucks? There are easier ways to do that. Sales and Marketing. On the client-side. Even sitting still will earn you more than 21c a week.

You write because you can’t help it.

And I suspect that if you give in to your writer, over time, she will reveal herself to you in the words that you write.

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