Something that always bothered me in school was the girls I knew who called themselves photographers.They thought they were creative for taking pictures of the sky or a tree, using black and white or sepia. However, having a camera does not make you a photographer. You are not trained, you are not getting paid, you're just aiming and shooting. Kids do it all the time.
I have gone back and forth with whether I would call myself a writer for some time, in part because I hate to be hypocritical for my views of mediocre photography. For sometime, I kept a journal full of poems. This doesn't make me a poet. I certainly won't be entertaining a crowd or publishing a book any time soon, I was just being a teenager. I have also written news-styled blog entries, but few read them and I wasn't paid - so I'm not sure whether that makes me a writer, or just a blogger, or if those are the same. I won a couple short story contests in school, but I also won speech contests and art contests, and I am certainly not a public speaker or a painter. All I really know is that I like to write, to act, and to draw, among other things - why should I worry about what I call it?
Interesting post, Angel...
ReplyDeleteSo, in this sense, to be a writer is to professionalize yourself or gain a wider audience?