How To Figure Out If You're a Real Writer
A lot of business coachy types will tell you that it's unhealthy to become obsessed with your work. They obviously aren't talking about writers.Writers...I mean real writers, not just those people who have a job title called writer, or people who play around with writing for fun, or a lot of you out there who just write to fill up your content quota on LinkedIn, real writers need to be obsessed with writing.
And it's not unhealthy. In fact for some writers,(myself included), their obsession with writing is the thing that actually prevents them from becoming obsessed with other things that can really hurt them. Like booze and drugs and other extreme forms of behaviour.
I don't know many real writers. I know a few. Some of them are friends. But most of them don't really have time for friends. They barely have time for anything other than what they do. This is not a bad thing if that's what you want. But it is possible to be a high functioning writer and still have a life, a family, a couple of friends, maybe even a hobby. But for real writers, their hobby usually ends up turning into some other kind of writing.
I have been writing since I was 16 or 17. I started in the time before computers. My first typewriter was a Olivetti portable, and I was a master at applying whiteout. When I got my first IBM Selectric, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. Interchangeable font balls, built-in correction ribbon, a back up key and electricity. Man, that was living. And the sound of that ball hitting the paper was like an aural aphrodisiac.
Little did I know that only a few years later, a company called Apple would change my life again, with a strange little box called a Macintosh SE-20.
Writing At The Speed of Thought. Oh Boy!
To a real writer, this mode of creativity, this ability to write closer to the speed at which the thoughts formed in your head, was a genuine narcotic. And I took full advantage of it. It was around this same time that my skills really started to mature, and every time I sat down at that computer and all the Macs that came after that, right up to the high powered Imac I am writing this on, I just let it rip.
ADD, OCD or Just Plain FUN?
At one point I I started to think I was suffering from attention deficit disorder, because I liked to write so many different types of things. But my wife told me that that would only be the case if I kept abandoning whatever I was doing to do something else. But I didn't. I always finished what I started. So I guess I was more OCD than ADD. But who cares. I was having a ball.
Most of the real writers I know are not quite as diversified as me. But that's because they have found their passion in a single vertical writing silo or two. And my attitude is that it takes all kinds and more power to them.
The Why Of ItIt wasn't until recently that I ever really thought too much about why I was doing this. I don't think writers do.
Oh sure, the commercial communications work I do has a very specific purpose, which is helping the companies I work for grow their businesses. And that is extremely gratifying and I'm pretty good at it.
But beyond that, it's a mystery. The other day I wrote a lyric that I liked. At some point in the future I will go back and tighten it up. yesterday, I wrote a web site for a new consulting business I'm getting involved in. Those are two wildly different things. And it's the test of the real writer's ability to be able to attack them both with equal passion.
I'm lucky in that regard because that's never been a problem for me.
The Symptoms Of Real Writer-itis
The way you find out if you're a real writer is if you exhibit and or all of these symptoms:
1. You write every day and write as much as you can.
2. You read a lot, preferably the work of other real writers.
3. You have found your passion and are not freaked if it's more than one thing.
4. You understand that if you're not enjoying yourself, you should quit before you become depressed.
5. You accept the fact that you will repeat Steps 1 and 2...till your time is up. No retirement allowed.
6. You always end whatever you are writing when you have said all you want to say.
Like I am doing now.
You can find out more about us at: http://tinyurl.com/y9zc9gvx
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Comments
Lada 🏡 Prkic
5 years ago #51
Bill Stankiewicz
5 years ago #50
Jim Murray
6 years ago #49
Thanks Chas \u270c\ufe0f Wyatt
Jim Murray
6 years ago #48
Thanksd you Chas \u270c\ufe0f Wyatt
Lisa Vanderburg
6 years ago #47
Phil Friedman
6 years ago #46
Shelley, in his reply #7 in this thread, Jim says, "I'm just amazed that someone out there is named Schmuck, I believe that's a Jewish slang term for prick, no?" Put that together with you comment #60, "@Jim Murray # 7 "You are really honest with yourself about what the hell is it you are", the exchange strikes me as funny. Of course, I've never pretended to be normal. Cheers!
Jim Murray
6 years ago #45
Right,.Agreed. I tend to aim a lot of the stuff I write at people who just starting out and like the idea of some sort of structure. I know a lot of writers who don't write every day. But I'll bet they did when they first started out.
Jim Murray
6 years ago #44
Nope... you had me at 'daily writing'
John Rylance
6 years ago #43
Jim Murray
6 years ago #42
Milos Djukic. Why are you posting this in a comment stream where it is very well hidden. Put it into a post and show it to everybody.
Jerry Fletcher
6 years ago #41
Phil Friedman
6 years ago #40
Shelley Brown, ROFLMAO AICGU. Sometimes life's ambiguities yield seriously belly laughs. To wit your comment in #60 below. If your "#7" prefaces your own addition to Jim's list of six points, then it is a solid enough comment. BUT, if your "#7" refers to Jim Murray's comment #7 below in this thread, your remark is absolutely hysterically funny! Check it out and let me know. Cheers! And thanks for making my day.
Milos Djukic
6 years ago #39
Thank you Phil Friedman, my friend for being you, always. “Thank you for all your guidance and wisdom, for setting the bar so much higher than I thought I could reach, and for giving me plenty of room to run with my own ideas. You've been the best teacher I've ever had.” - Lisa Genova
Milos Djukic
6 years ago #38
Phil Friedman
6 years ago #37
Thank you, Professor Milos Djukic -- "I learned you can't trust the judgment of good friends." -- Carl Sandburg "To think is to be, to be is to judge" -- The Wisdom of Chung King (circa 650 AD) "Not all judgment is 'judgmental' and to confuse the two commits a category error of the first magnitude." -- Phil Friedman Cheers, my friend. I hope this finds you well.
Susan 🐝 Rooks, The Grammar Goddess
6 years ago #36
Milos Djukic
6 years ago #35
Milos Djukic
6 years ago #34
Milos Djukic
6 years ago #33
Milos Djukic
6 years ago #32
Jim Murray
6 years ago #31
Milos Djukic
6 years ago #30
Jim Murray
6 years ago #29
The nice thing about social media is that everyone is entitled to their opinion, even the narcissists. This post is part of a very long series of advice I give to would be writers, because, I happen to believe that not everybody is a writer but maybe everyone can be. Also your remark about writing just like Hemingway makes you sound more like a mimic than a writer, But then I started the same way, writing like Bob Dylan, or at l;east trying to.
Milos Djukic
6 years ago #28
Phil Friedman, The name of this song is "Illusion" and it is from album titled "Judgment" by VNV Nation. The "VNV" in the name stands for "Victory Not Vengeance", in keeping with the group's motto, "One should strive to achieve, not sit in bitter regret. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVf2EeTMNJo
Phil Friedman
6 years ago #27
, in the manner of late 60s and early 70s pop psychology, I'm OK, (if) you're OK. Cheers, buddy.
Lyon Brave
6 years ago #26
David B. Grinberg
6 years ago #25
Thanks for your messsage, Phil 😇🙏 you make an excellent point, as usual, which I applaud 👏👏 as usual. Please note that I inadvertently erred in my haste to comment and shut down my laptop while Nicole was dragging me out the door to enjoy the nice weather 🌞☀️. Thus, as they say in Congress, please allow that statement to be stricken from the record and replaced with the following iteration "Ditto that for you, Jim, Phil Friedman and so many other impressive bees and ambassadors alike for their exemplary buzzes, honey 🍯 and cross-channel pollination. Again, I regret the error, Phil, and I really appreciate your catching and correcting it. In fact, to close out a Live Buzz I did yesterday, I specifically thanked "all bees and brand ambassadors..." To paraphrase Hillary Clinton's famous line, it takes a hive -- in fact many hives. The beauty of beBee is that the work and contributions of the users are much more valuable than that of any individual worker bee or ambassador, etc. I like to think of Producer as a level playing field in which all views are heard via civil debate and constructive open dialogue. Please forgive my inadvertent oversight and omission, Phil. I ask the same to all users/bees I may have unintentionally offended. I have never claimed to BEE perfect and never will be perfect. To the contrary, I'm very far from it. Peace brother! ✌️️✌️️🐝🐝🇺🇸🌏🌍🌎
Lisa Gallagher
6 years ago #24
Phil Friedman
6 years ago #23
, you know that I value both your writing and your friendship. However, as you know, whenever you or others say as you did below that, "And ditto that for you, Jim and so many other impressive beBee ambassadors who make this buzzing platform so special!", I have to ask if it is your and the platform's considered opinion that it is only the designated beBee Brand Ambassadors who count or who contribute to making this "platform so special"? When a reputedly inadvertent misstatement continues to be repeated, one begins to wonder if there really isn't a current of elitism running through beBee. Just saying. Cheers!
Liesbeth Leysen, MSc.
6 years ago #22
agree we need to honor Jim's buzz, and agree with your beautiful words David.
David B. Grinberg
6 years ago #21
Not to hog Jim's brilliant buzz here, but thank you you are much too kind. And ditto that for you, Jim and so many other impressive beBee ambassadors who make this buzzing platform so special!
Liesbeth Leysen, MSc.
6 years ago #20
David B. Grinberg
6 years ago #19
David B. Grinberg
6 years ago #18
Liesbeth Leysen, MSc.
6 years ago #17
I love what you have written here, thank you. I know how some bees are a bit hesitating to set their first steps in the writing field and they might lose just that little courage. It was only about that. You are without any doubt a great writer. Let that be clear.
Jim Murray
6 years ago #16
...Sorry if you felt I was judging anyone here. Everybody is what they are. I know I am a writer because writing is my profession and probably my only skill. The 'real' here is really meant to define 'dedication' to the craft and not be a point of differentiation or stratification. The overall intent of this piece is to give anyone who wants to be a professional writer some advice from someone who is in that profession. I don't judge anyone except myself, although, admittedly, not as harshly as I should.
Phil Friedman
6 years ago #15
Gerald Hecht, I get it. When I was studying comedy as a youth one summer in Benton Harbor, Michigan (the minor leagues to the Catskills Circuit), we learned the following routine: A little kid would come onto stage and call out, "The Viper is coming, the Viper is coming". Someone else would run in circles intoning. "The Viper is coming, whatever shall we do?" Then someone older would enter stage right and be told, "Oh help us, please, the Viper is coming". And that person would scream and run off state calling out like Chicken Liver -- er, Chicken Little -- "the Viper is coming, the Viper is coming!" After about a full five minutes of this insanity and inanity, I would come onto stage in an apron and rubber galoshes holding a sponge and say, "I am da vindow vasher, I've come to vipe da vindows!" My grandparents' crowd would roar hytsterically and the curtain would close. OMG! How's that for a self-revelation.
Phil Friedman
6 years ago #14
Yes, Peter, I understand completely. When I was an undergraduate, I thought that perhaps I could write like Dylan Thomas if I could learn to drink like him. Total failure. For most ethnic Jews lack the enzyme production necessary to metabolize that much alcohol all at once and so can never aspire to binge drinking. Instead, they tend to pass out after a measly three or four whiskeys (in my case two). As to my back up plan, I learned to love sailing and being in open waters, but again I hate big game fishing. Eventually, I gave up my plans to be a writer and studied philosophy. Cheers!
Liesbeth Leysen, MSc.
6 years ago #13
Kind of you towards Jim, and you are wonderful too Kevin.
Kevin Pashuk
6 years ago #12
Liesbeth Leysen, MSc.
6 years ago #11
I listened to your words while reading them, I hear you.
Phil Friedman
6 years ago #10
Liesbeth> " Be careful and let us not judge." Liesbeth, I think the full expression is, "Judge not, lest you be yourself judged." Which doesn't prohibit judging, only placing oneself on a pedestal above others. Like you, I am not overly fond of the self-ascribed title "writer" and have said so more than once. https://www.bebee.com/producer/@friedman-phil/why-i-am-not-a-writer-and-other-random-observations-on-literary-keyboarding But the fact is we make all manner of judgments every day. We judge what food we like and don't, what books and articles, what thinkers, and what politicians. We judge whose clothes we like and whose looks, and on and on. So why shouldn't we judge who is and who is not "a writer" or what it takes to be one? Don't you judge who is and who is not a "certified executive coach"? At base all such judgments, whether about writers or executive coaches, are no more nor less than expressions of our respective personal opinions. Let's allow Jim (and all others) the right to express their opinions with hitting them with moralistic pronouncements. Which does not mean that we should give them a free pass to say what they want without challenge. For to be a writer is to say, "Hey, here I am and here is my work. Now, come and judge me." Cheers!
Liesbeth Leysen, MSc.
6 years ago #9
don kerr
6 years ago #8
Gerald Hecht good point. I think.
don kerr
6 years ago #7
Phil Friedman
6 years ago #6
Yes, Jim Murray, a schmuck is a horse's penis in Yiddish. Figuratively, of course. A schmuck is the guy who inevitably spills his bowl of soup at the dinner table. A schlimiel is the guy who the schmuck always spills the soup on. Given a choice, it's probably better to be a schmuck than a schlimiel. Cheers!
Jim Murray
6 years ago #5
LOL. I'm just amazed that someone out there is named Schmuck, I believe that's a Jewish slang term or prick, no?
Jim Murray
6 years ago #4
Phil Friedman. That's certainly a valid opinion. However, what I wrote was reflective of another opinion. A case of alternative facts both being true.
Phil Friedman
6 years ago #3
Don \ud83d\udc1d Kerr, you guys know that I love you and your writing dearly. But WTF are you talking about when you say writers avoid the ills of substance abuse because they're too occupied writing? Hemingway, Faulkner, Parker, Thompson, Joyce, Dylan Thomas, Capote, Poe, Chandler, Cheever, O. Henry, Williams, Kerouac, Fitzgerald and on and on. The list is to long to be encompassed in this comment. Come on guys, let's get real. Writing can be an obsession and a blessing, but it can also be an affliction -- or the cause of affliction. And BTW, writers don't write because they can; they write because they're driven to. Which makes them, I'd guess, addictive types who can easily fall into addictive behaviors. Or not. Either way, they are a totally mixed bunch. Now, please behave yourselves and allow me to return to upsetting the emotives on social media. :-). Cheers!
don kerr
6 years ago #2
Javier Cámara-Rica 🐝🇪🇸
6 years ago #1