“How do you become a writer?” people ask me.

While many of my memoir-writing clients are one-time authors, not everyone is in that category. Many people join The Memoir Network secretly wanting to become “a writer” and hoping that memoir writing will be their ticket into the writer’s life.

I might, in all seriousness, respond, “Start calling yourself a writer and see what happens.”

“Does saying you are a writer make you a writer?” might be their comeback and likely will be.

Well, of course, the answer is a qualified no. Not ipso facto. But calling yourself a writer will move you in the right direction.

It did that for me

Calling yourself a writer: in my case

Many years ago, my wife said, “When people ask you what you do, why don’t you tell them you are a writer? You are always writing,”

I was uncomfortable doing so. I felt like a phony. How could I call myself a writer when my writing was not earning an income? Instead, my writing required a subsidy. Some writer!

Well, even with her urging, it took me a while to gather the nerve to call myself a writer. In the interim, feeling the mounting imperative to say “I am a writer,” I began to ask myself, “What would I need to experience in my writing life to feel I could call myself a writer?”

In short, I began to notice and make adjustments to actions and attitudes that I needed to feel comfortable with to call myself a writer.

Some of the change was psychological. I repeated to myself, “I am a writer even if I don’t earn an income from writing.”

But, more of the change was from selling my writing and services. It was a challenge at first. Like many other writers, I undervalued myself and my services.

In time, I did call myself a writer and felt more and more comfortable doing so. I think this comfort resulted from both the volume of my writing and the increase in my income from writing. Not a whole lot of income, mind you, but some.

Another example of calling yourself a writer

We would probably all agree that Emily Dickinson, who published little while alive (and, by extension, sold little), was very much a writer—so being a writer is not dependent on income from the craft. I want to be clear about that even if I did not quite believe this conclusion for a long time.

My intellectual understanding notwithstanding, I was pained by the separation of money and vocation in my life, and I wanted to unite the two. I knew it would make me feel better—and it did.

Gradually I worked my way to being a writer who earns income. Some of the income was from book sales; some from workshops; still more was from coaching and editing.

The change for me, as it will likely be true for you, came about by daring to do these things a “real” writer does.

Earning income did not make me more of a writer, but it eventually paid the bills. That helped me experience vocation and money being at last integrated into my life. I was no longer working to support my writing habit. My writing was supporting me and my family.

So, yes, calling yourself a writer will, in the end, probably make you into a writer. It will do so because it is likely to serve as an underpinning to the changes that need to happen in your activities: you must write books that can be sold, write something that can be parlayed into workshops, classes, editing and coaching.

I am a better writer for the years I have spent writing. I’m a happier writer now that my writing supports me. And…

In some real way, it began when I dared to call myself a writer.

In conclusion

How about you? Do you call yourself a writer? What might happen if you did?

Action Steps

1. Just say, “I am a writer” when people ask you what you do. Don’t say, “I’m a high school teacher or dental hygienist or doctor who really wants to be a writer.” Be bold in your presentation by calling yourself a writer. People will ask you what you have sold, and you, in turn, will ask them if it was income that made Emily Dickinson a writer.
2. Observe how you feel when you call yourself a writer. Are there certain sorts of people you feel more uncomfortable saying that to? For instance, do you feel more uncomfortable saying that to a high earner than to a low earner? What’s that about? What adjustments to your thinking (and to your writing activity) do you have to make?
3. Add “writer” to your email signature.
4. What opportunities are available to you to earn income from writing? Would pursuing these even for a while help you to be more comfortable saying “I am a writer.” Or,
5. Is publication the magic bullet that will assign value to your work for you? If so, seek publication. At first, they may be few and small but over time they will both multiply and become more significant.
6. If it’s not publication that assigns value, what does? Pursue that.