Definition and Examples of a Writer

Definition and Examples of a Writer A writer is: (a) a person who writes (articles, stories, books, etc.); (b) an author: a person who writes professionally. In the words of author and editor Sol Stein, A writer is someone who cannot not write. Etymology:  From an Indo-European root, to cut, scratch, sketch an outline Examples and Observations Everyone is a writer. You are a writer. All over the world, in every culture, human beings have carved into stone, written on parchment, birch bark, or scraps of paper, and sealed into letterstheir words. Those who do not not write stories and poems on solid surfaces tell them, sing them, and, in so doing, write them on the air. Creating with words is our continuing passion.(Pat Schneider, Writing Alone and With Others. Oxford University Press, 2003)A writer is someone who writes, its true, but a writer is also someone with a large capacity for adversity. Youll want to cultivate that capacity. Stamina is a writers first quality.(Bill Roorbach, Writing Life Stories. Writers Digest, 2000)We all know its hard work. Nobody asked any one of us to become a writer. No one will care if you dont become one.No one but you, that is.(George V. Higgins, On Writing. Henry Holt, 1990)Writers are sentenced to their sentences, which sometimes set them free.(Adam Gopnik, As Big as the Ritz. The New Yo rker, September 22, 2014) Gushers and TricklersIn regard to the work habits of professional authors, Robertson Davies insisted that there are just two kinds of writers, gushers and tricklers. Take a moment to consider which category you fall into.[James] Thurber  was a gusher; for one story which was 20,000 words when finished, he wrote a total of 240,000, and fifteen different versions. It is interesting that the torrential Thurber is the one who talked most about that dread of all writers - drying up. . . . Frank OConnor was also a gusher; he rewrote some of his stories even after they had been published.The tricklers may be represented by William Styron, who says: I cant turn out slews of stuff each day. I wish I could. I seem to have some neurotic need to perfect each paragrapheach sentence, evenas I go along.  Dorothy Parker, also a trickler, said: I cant write five words but I change seven!The industry of the gushers commands respect; Joyce Cary, Frank OConnor, and  [Truman] Capotewe see them writ ing and  revising, rejecting pages by the handful, and finally piecing their work together from the mass. But the tricklers have an agony of their own; they cannot continue until the last line written is as right as they can make it. Both methods seem to take about an equal amount of time.(Robertson Davies,   A Voice from the Attic: Essays on the Art of Reading, rev. ed. Penguin, 1990) A Writing ExerciseBefore you begin writing about your life, I want you to think about how you feel about writing. We all have our personal mythology of what a writer is and does. I want you to write for fifteen minutes to complete the following sentence: A writer is someone who _______.Write for fifteen minutes without stopping, letting yourself explore the possibilities. Let go of all your inhibitions and enjoy yourself. Remember to be honest. When you are finished, take a look at what you have written. Did anything surprise you?If you are working with a partner, take turns reading what each of you has written and discuss the work.(Janet Lynn Roseman, The Way of the Woman Writer, 2nd ed. Haworth, 2003)Writers WriteIf you simply define a writer as someone who is writing, clarity sets in. Youre truly a writer when youre writing; and if you dont write regularly, dont pretend to give yourself that title. Start writing more, Ray Bradbury tells would-be writers at conferences, itll get ri d of all those moods youre having.(Kenneth John Atchity, A Writers Time: Making the Time to Write, rev. ed. W.W. Norton, 1995) You Are a WriterA writer is a writer. You care about writing. It isnt men or women. . . . You sit down, you write, you are not a woman, or an Italian. You are a writer.(Natalia Ginzburg, interviewed by Mary Gordon, Surviving History. The New York Times Magazine, Marc. 25, 1990)What Is a Writer Like?- A writer is like a bean plant: he has his little day, and then gets stringy.(attributed to E.B. White)- Being a writer is like being one of those riskily overbred pedigree dogsa French bulldog, for instancepoorly suited for survival despite their very special attributes. Being a writer is in defiance of Darwins observation that the more highly specialized a species, the more likelihood of extinction.(Joyce Carol Oates, A Widows Story: A Memoir. HarperCollins, 2011)- A writer is like a Gypsy. He owes no allegiance to any government. If he is a good writer he will never like the government he lives under. His hand should be against it and its hand will always be against him.(Ernest Hemingw ay, letter to Ivan Kashkin, Aug. 19, 1935)- Being a writer is like having homework every night for the rest of your life.(attributed to Lawrence Kasdan) The Downside of Being a WriterYou may have gathered from all this that I am not encouraging people to try to be writers. Well, I cant. You hate to see a nice young person run up to the edge of the cliff and jump off, you know. On the other hand, it is awfully nice to know that some other people are just as nutty and just as determined to jump off the cliff as you are. You just hope they realize what theyre in for.(Ursula K. Le Guin, The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction, ed. by Susan Wood. Ultramarine, 1980)On the whole, professional writers are a lot of whining bastards who wouldnt last a day in a real job. . . . The true mortification of being a writer is having to meet other writers from time to time, and listen to their mundane egotistical rantings.(Duncan McLean, quoted by Jim Fisher in The Writers Quotebook: 500 Authors on Creativity, Craft, and the Writing Life. Rutgers University Press, 2006) Pronunciation: RI-ter Writers on Writing Toni Morrison on WritingWhy Do Writers Write?​Writers on Writing: E.B. WhiteWriters on Writing: Overcoming Writers BlockWriters on Rewriting Also see: WritingCollaborative WritingCompositionWriters BlockWriting CenterWriting GroupWriting Process