Some time ago, I was talking to a
friend of mine about writing, and she said “You know, now with Facebook and
Twitter and blogs, everyone is sort
of a writer”. And as someone who works in publishing, I was not pleased by
that. Is it that easy to become a writer now? Don’t you have to at least be
published/in the process of being published? By a real publishing house? This
is a bit like that Friends episode in
which Rachel’s sister calls herself an interior decorator because she decorated
their dad’s office! I mean, I’m an editor (and let’s not even go into all the actual
writing that comes with that
territory), I have a blog, but I don’t call myself a writer, so how dare they?
But then, I started thinking.
Isn’t this a good thing? The democratization of a craft that was earlier the
preserve of just a few? And well, writing is a mode of communication, after
all, which is what the internet is all about. Of course, if we were to count
all of this as writing, then we must admit there is a marked drop in the
quality thereof, but that is the case with most things that go mass.
Maybe we should have another name
for it. We’ve got blogging, which works fine. For the others, how about Social
Netwriting? Of course, that implies that these writers only write socially,
which brings me to another question: whom does one write for? Is it fair to
assume that everyone wants to be heard, liked, and retweeted, and is generally
hungry for attention and approval? While that may be true for some, it can’t
possibly be the same for everyone, right? I sometimes “write” to spread
awareness about something, sometimes to vent steam about something, sometimes
to wish someone a happy birthday, and sometimes, just because I heard/read/thought
of something interesting or funny and I wanted to share it - and due to the
leaps in technology, I can share it with several people at once.
And this question of readership
and validation through numbers. Does it matter if the only people reading your
writing are your friends? Should it matter? Should it matter how many “likes”
you get on an update, how many comments on a blog post, how many retweets? Are
you a writer if no one reads you?
Nope, I’m not convinced. Because when people ask what
you do, they do mean professionally, not in terms of “hobbies”. So to me, “I’m
a writer” means “I’m published or going to be”, not “I tweet 600 times a day”.
The group that you want to identify themselves as "writer" should use "published author" instead.
ReplyDeleteAnon - Well, the idea I'm working with is that people usually use their profession (by which I mean means of livelihood) to describe themselves. So when someone says they're a writer, one traditionally assumes that they are/will be published. My post is basically about whether that assumption is rightful or not. And as I said, I also write - for myself. Not the same thing, no?
ReplyDeleteLoved this post and often feel the same - it IS good to have people free to express themselves and blog and write, but I miss the quality of language my archaic mind associates with a 'writer'. Or maybe I've just read too many bad book proposals/poems lately.
ReplyDeleteIn addition to Facebook and Twitter, publications (read magazines)are now online and there is a serious dearth of content. In the interest of churning out new and exciting content, I feel like the standards of both - writing and editing - have hit an all-time low. Even worse, those who do get published HERE can now call themselves writers...
ReplyDelete