The first point is this. What gives me the right to call myself a writer?
While I was doing the insane NaNoWriMo thing, I used to refer to myself as a writer all the time. To everyone. In every conversation I had. After all, why not? Now many would dispute my right to call myself a writer: after all, I have never written anything professionally, much less profoundly. So what makes me think I am a writer?
Because I write.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines a writer as : a person who writes or has written something.
So I am a writer. I am allowed to call myself a writer because I write, regardless of how bad I write, or whether my writing is of any benefit to anyone else. I ama writer because I write, and because I have chosen to call myself a writer. However because I choose to call myself a writer, I have to keep writing, otherwise I am just pretending.
Kind of like when we call ourselves Christians?
I call myself a Christian, although I may very well be the worst one ever. Just as I call myself a writer because I write, I call myself a Christian because I follow Christ. The word Christian does not imply that I am very good at it, just as the word writer implies nothing about the quality of the work I produce. Because we live in a world that expect so much of us, we feel as if we can’t call ourselves Christians, because we are not good examples. But that is not how it works.
John 1:12 says “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” – English Standard Version
Not, “to all who believed, and were really good at it“ So I guess there is hope for me yet. I can call myself a writer, and a Christian… because I write, and follow Christ.
