Writing

For a long time I've struggled with the concept of who writers were. Are we talking people whose sole occupation is writing for a living? Someone who enjoys writing? Do you need to be published to be a writer? Does consistency of time spent play a factor? Should you have a degree in literature or creative writing?

I have written a screenplay, over two dozen short stories, over a hundred poems (a phase I've since morphed out of as it was all angst filled, teenage emotions), 100+ blog posts and several attempts at a novel. None of them published, though my writing teachers seemed to like what I wrote (not that I paid them or anything of the sort). Does that make me a writer?

All this effort to define something I knew. Yes, I am a writer. I write to release emotions, demons, fantasies, or scenarios that keep playing out in my head. I write to answer a question that bothers me to follow it to the answer. I write because that's what writers do.

I may never get published, but if the only reason for me to write is to be published then I better do something utterly horrendous or fantastic to get there. Either way, I'm ok right here...for now.