Unpopular Opinion: I think calling yourself an aspiring author/aspiring writer is doing you nothing but harm.
I don’t want to be mean. I don’t want to be rude. I don’t even want to point anyone out, but, I just don’t get it. Why would you ever call yourself an aspiring writer? I see it a lot. Everywhere. Biographies on websites, blurbs on people’s published work, blog posts. Aspiring, aspiring, aspiring. Do we even know what that means anymore?
As writers, everyday we wake up. Everyday we put pen to paper, hands to keyboard, thoughts to words and get work out. We are people who have finished novels, short stories, blog posts. Whether all we’ve completed is a poem this week, or NaNoWriMo all year. Maybe it isn’t as prolific as we want to be, but, we’re doing, right? We’ve completed things. We didn’t sit around and stare out the window, looking at the stars, wishing to be a writer.
Why are we trying to paint that picture of ourselves?
Calling yourself an aspiring author is selling yourself short, don’t you think? Telling people what you want to be instead of what you are is sort of self-depreciating. You’re a writer! You’re an author! Stand up for yourself. Sure you don’t have an agent, you don’t have a book deal, you don’t even get paid for what you do.
But you write, right? Stories and books and poems are you in your authorship, right? You’re a novelist, a poet, a short-story scribbler.
You’re not aspiring. You’re doing. That’s more than half the people who sit around on social networks discussing writing can say. Wear those words proudly. It’s what you do. Don’t let anyone take that from you and really don’t give it up yourself.
You won’t see me doing that anytime soon.
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Do you use the word aspiring when describing yourself? I’m interested in knowing why. Maybe I’m wrong and you’re right. Maybe no one is right. But still, hit me up, let me know.
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External validation from agents, publishers, critics, readers, reviewers, other writers seems to define us. Until we have that, most of us don't want to call ourselves 'writers.' It's scary to say "I'm a writer" if you're not published. Fear of people sneering at our aspirations keeps most of us quiet. I don't really tell anyone (except my closest friends) that I write, that I'm hoping to be published. Even my family has no idea.
Agreed. I've never heard anyone call themselves an aspiring writer until I got serious about getting out and meeting writers. It seems a silly thing. I can understand "aspiring novelist" if you haven't written a novel yet, but "aspiring writer" doesn't mesh.
I used to call myself that, but I don't anymore. I agree.
It's weird, because I don't see other artists dealing with this sort of identity crises. You don't see a sculptor molding their work and calling themselves "aspiring", or painters, piano players, etc. It's just the writers.
Writers, as a breed, are entirely too hung up on the idea of getting paid. It seems that, by and large, writers define themselves by the size of their royalty checks, or whether or not they have a book deal. Musicians and painters are always musicians and painters, but writers chase money, it seems. As long as you wait for external validation like that, you're never going to accomplish anything.
I guess we all have this sense of "modesty", like if we call ourselves aspiring, we can always pretend we can qui & move on if some internet hot shot says we're not good enough.
You're so talented & interesting. I love your writing so much,
I struggle with this every day. I mean, on one hand, as previously mentioned, other artists don't have the same kind of existential crises over whether they can or cannot claim the title in question. And I don't think anyone would say that Emily Dickinson was not a writer during the years she spent scribbling poetry alone in her room. But I still have trouble claiming it. It's not even quite about money, I guess. More about the validation that I produce work that other people want to read? I guess I see writing as sort of a conversation between readers and writers, which is ironic since I steadfastly refuse to let anyone see nearly anything I write.
I read this and identified strongly with every word you wrote there. I sometimes choke on the title for the very same reasons.
no choking, you're a writer. the end :)
"I guess I see writing as sort of a conversation between readers and writers,"
i like that thought, though, you're still a writer if you want someone to read it… ;D
fuck modesty, that's what i say.
and thank you allison, i could say the same about you. wait, i already do! :D
"As long as you wait for external validation like that, you're never going to accomplish anything. "
This, 100%
Yup, which is uncalled for, because i see a lot of REALLY GOOD, REALLY TALENTED writers using this term and i wanna be like NO NO NO AND NO! *slap! slap!*
thanks joey :3
I'm with you on the aspiring novelist, if you're someone who writes a lot of shorts and stuff like that. No issues there. But once you finish a novel, that title HAS to go. Even if the novel hasn't sold (me thinks)
also, thanks for stopping by. I enjoy your literary company!
Yeah, I think we should just stop letting our fears define us in this literary realm (rofl, that sounds so absurd). but really, if we tell people we are aspiring, we're setting ourselves up to not be taken seriously, i just think. we're making ourselves sound subpar before we're even judged by anyone, and i'm sure it colours their judgement, slightly.
It's tough. I know. ;;
Well, I was always told that being an author was a point in a career, not a definition of a person. I will always be a writer, but until you are the author of a published book, it might seem a little weird to call yourself one. Sort of like if you're an actor and you call yourself a movie star. You know what I mean? I agree that people probably do put too much energy into letting others define them, though, but I don't find the fact that I would like to be a published author when I'm currently not to be self-deprecating in any way. If you aspire to be the CEO of a company, it isn't self-deprecating to confess that right now you're just working a desk job for it. So I guess it's just a matter of semantics. I don't think everyone out there is trying to say they're some sort of pathetic failure. I know I'm not! I've had many successes. I just haven't reached a point where I have a finished book to sell, and I hope that some day soon I will, and that a publishing house will want it.
Hello! Thanks for chiming in, I'm always glad to see new people stop by and wanna discuss things!
I suppose the difference in our lines of thought is I firmly believe being an author and being a writer is the same thing. I don't believe in the fact that publication will and can define me. Especially with publishing being so strange these days. Will it mean that self-published writers aren't allowed to be called authors because one of the big six didn't pick them up? Does getting paid for being in a book count as being an author, even if it was in a small press? Does the book have to be entirely mine for me to be referred to as an author? Does it even have to be physical? For me it is none of that, even if I am able to call myself an author by both yours and mine's definition. (yours and mine. wow. i fail at language, buddy, haha!). With the way publishing is changing these days, the way we look at how we refer to ourselves must change as well.
Up a bit higher NM said something along the lines of calling yourself an aspiring novelist if you've never written a novel. I believe that. But you'd never call yourself an aspiring doctor, do you? And you call yourself an actor and not an aspiring movie star, right? You call yourself a businessman and not an aspiring ceo, right? It's okay to call yourself a writer and not an author if you believe that a certain set of criteria mean you're an author – that's fair. But calling yourself an aspiring-anything comes across as very navel-gazing, hope-in-the-wind, i-dream-of-this-at-night-and-do-nothing-to-get-there-during-the-day to me.
frankly, to me, it puts you at the disadvantage of judging yourself before others get to judge you. it's bad PR for yourself before you even get a chance to have PR written about you. They say fake it til you make it, right? Writing is a business, so we should treat it like one.
Maybe self-depreciating is a little harsh, but, i think we need to give ourselves much more credit than we already do and stop looking to outsiders for validation towards WHAT we can call ourselves. You know?
I hope you get to that point where you have a finished book and I hope that even if no publishing house wants it, you won't take that as an answer and you get that book seen by the world. Somehow, someway. I hope you get to wear the title you're waiting for as well. You deserve it.
Again, thanks for coming around and I hope you'll visit again sometime soon :D
This was too well worded for me to repeat, but I basically agree on all points. <3
thanks <3
Well that's sort of what I meant by semantics, since there are different definitions of "author" and people choose to use it in whatever context best suits them. But I understand where you're coming from. I just don't think other people are necessarily belittling themselves because they see being an author as a goal they haven't yet achieved. I happen to think "aspiring" implies a hope and something to strive for, rather than an implication that a person isn't good enough or worthless until they reach that title. So it just comes down to people feeling differently about terms. That aside, I see no reason why anyone should object to anyone else referring to his or herself as an author. But those who are fine with "aspiring" aren't any lesser than those who aren't. ^^
Anyway, thank you! I have a million open projects that I've been working on for years, but I somehow have just never managed to finish one of them. I get closer every day, though. I joke that in a few years I'm just going to finish 20 novels in one month because of the way I give them all attention at random. And yep, I am definitely always going to write. To me, it's about people reading it, not about the money, so my plan has always been to try to get work published as much as I can, but if that particular novel can't find a home, I'll just release it online for free. I already do that with some of my fiction anyway.
Good luck to you, too!
"But those who are fine with "aspiring" aren't any lesser than those who aren't."
I don't think anyone means that, i think the tone is very much the opposite – be proud of you who are because you are something awesome! no need to aspire to anything, you already are, etc. I don't think anyone can actually take a form of offense to that. It's more of a call to be positive about yourself and who you are and not using language that can make it seem less than that. Please don't think that any of us are saying that by calling yourself Aspiring you're actually worthless. It's a call to the arms of positivity towards who you are and your work. And not letting publishing affect that.
I feel you on the novel thing though! I have completed only one novel and it really wasn't up to my standards (oh, standards!) otherwise, everything is half finished and strewn about, but, I'm working on that!
Hope to see some of your work soon then! Even if it is online~ :D
I'm not a writer, I'm a photojournalist, but I do tend to tack on the "aspiring" tag to that title. While I'm a better photographer than quite a few of the published photojournalists I've seen, I feel like I can't truthfully call myself a photojournalist until I have been published on more than just a couple low-paying websites. How do you feel about the issue?
I never heard anyone call themselves an aspiring writer. Being a writer is a career and not a definition of yourself. Be proud on what you are, a writer or an author.
Fucking awesome post. WORD UP. I had this instructor who was always like, “Start now. Call yourself an illustrator. I don’t care if you’ve done 20 spreads or only one. How will anyone know what you want to do if you just tell them what you hate doing? (ie Starbux job etc).
Sing it sister!
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