Tiffany B. Brown

a mish-mosh of stuff

On Being a Writer

Junot Diaz writes in O Magazine

You see, in my view a writer is a writer not because she writes well and easily, because she has amazing talent, because everything she does is golden. In my view a writer is a writer because even when there is no hope, even when nothing you do shows any sign of promise, you keep writing anyway.

It’s an amazing essay about the 10 year-plus period it took him to write his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao [Via The Millions]

  • http://patricia-elizabeth.com/ Patricia

    I’ve had the discussion of what makes a writer a writer for years with various friends. I’ve always been in the minority in my belief that a writer writes. Quite simply. Whether it is good or bad, that’s a judgement call for others to make. I think when people talk about “writers” they’re usually talking about published authors. I certainly don’t mean to insult or dilute the importance of what many of my very talented friends do but I dislike the idea that we would discourage anyone from trying to fulfill their need and desire to write simply because they don’t have the great American novel in them.

  • http://patricia-elizabeth.com Patricia

    I’ve had the discussion of what makes a writer a writer for years with various friends. I’ve always been in the minority in my belief that a writer writes. Quite simply. Whether it is good or bad, that’s a judgement call for others to make. I think when people talk about “writers” they’re usually talking about published authors. I certainly don’t mean to insult or dilute the importance of what many of my very talented friends do but I dislike the idea that we would discourage anyone from trying to fulfill their need and desire to write simply because they don’t have the great American novel in them.

  • tiffany

    Agreed. It’s as though we don’t want to call ourselves ‘X’ if it’s not something we earn an income from and do full-time. For example, I don’t think of myself as an artist, but I suppose I am one. Not a working artist, but an artist.

    I think it’s hard to break that identity-occupation connection for most of us. What we do is so important to our sense of who we are in the U.S.

  • tiffany

    Agreed. It’s as though we don’t want to call ourselves ‘X’ if it’s not something we earn an income from and do full-time. For example, I don’t think of myself as an artist, but I suppose I am one. Not a working artist, but an artist.

    I think it’s hard to break that identity-occupation connection for most of us. What we do is so important to our sense of who we are in the U.S.