Does that make him the equal of Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway and some guy who wrote a book in 1937?
We become writers for lots of reasons. Some of us make our living writing for newspapers or magazines or whatever. Some of us scramble around, looking desperately for a few dollars here or there.
Others of us write because we have to. Even when we're not writing, we're looking at the world like writers, listening to the rhythms of conversations and watching the patterns of interactions.
Some people write blogs just to say they're published writers. Most of us wish we could write and publish a novel just to say we did it. No money, just satisfaction.
Some guys don't like to write but like to finish writing. Me? I love sitting at the computer and composing. I'm not a great writer, and I don't think of myself as an author. As with singing, and I'm no Domingo, I just love to write. I get satisfaction from writing this blog and another one — http://tg-editor-proofreader.blogspot.com/, but I'd rather get paid to do it.
In my last job, I was the sports editor for a small paper. I was doing what I was born to do — putting out a sports section. It required me to write, edit, take photos and lay out pages. Perfect.
The job also provided a sense of self worth; it felt great to go to work, knowing I was useful and good at what I did. I was a newspaperman again.
I've written or co-written four non-fiction books. Am I writer or an author? Normally, I say I'm a writer, but I will say that I'm the author of such and such book. Writer doesn't seem to fit there.
Contact: I can be reached at tgilli52@gmail.com or nc3022@yahoo.com. Also, my Twitter handle is EDITORatWORK.
More blog entries by Tom Gillispie
EDITOR@WORK blog entries
Entries from The Dog Blog
Blog entries from The Auto Racing Journal
(a book of great stories about the Intimidator)
(the book of great NASCAR stories)
