I've been in this business for more than thirty years as an author, editor, publisher and, most recently, a teacher.

For the past few years, with a signifant break thanks to Covid, I've been teaching short story and novel writing to adults. It's been a wonderful, rewarding experience, and it's really reminded me of the angst and uncertainty that new writers struggle with every day. It's been a long time since my first sale and I've sold plenty of stuff since. Yet I still remember the sometimes crippling lack of confidence and the "drowning man"-esque need for some kind, any kind of validation.

In my classes, the question I get most often from students is some variation of this: "Do you think I'm a writer?"

This is, of course, perfectly understandable. Writing is a solitary endeavor and, while some of us are lucky enough to be bolstered by friends and family with epithets like "It's good!" and "I like it!" and the ever-popular "I'm sure it'll be published," there remains a huge chasm between your mother or roommate praising your written words and an editor, agent, or publisher doing the same thing.

So, when a student asks me that most common of questions, I take it seriously and I answer it as truthfully as I can.

The answer is always "yes."

There's an old joke I rather like. A writer walks into an elegant cocktail party. When one of the guests asks what she does for a living, the writer replies, "I'm a writer." The guest gushes, "How wonderful! I've always wanted to be a writer!" And the writers responds, "Really? I've always wanted to be a brain surgeon!"

If you want to be a writer, you write. There is no other requirement. That's not a very practical approach to brain surgery.

With that in mind, let me break it down for you. If you keep a diary or journal of any kind, you're a writer. If you pen long letters or emails to friends, sharing your life and experiences, you're a writer. If you draft, edit, and publish a holiday newsletter, wherein you list your annual accomplishments and those of your family members, you're a writer. If you compose limericks in the doctor's waiting room or pen fan fiction for Firefly or Game of Thrones, you're a writer. See where I'm going with this? If you create and your medium is the written word, then you are just like me...and just like all of the names listed in this ezine.

You are a writer.

It doesn't matter if you've never been published. Emily Dickinson published seven poems in her lifeline. The overwhelming majority of her work didn't see print until after she died. Besides, and I'm going to put this as delicately as I'm able, publication does not imply quality. Crap is published all the time, folks, while great works languish unknown and certainly unread. Consider the case of John Kennedy Toole, who penned a masterful comedy called A Confederacy of Dunces in 1965. After long efforts to see it published ultimately failed, Toole became despondent and took his own life at the age of just 31. Years later, his mother got the book published and it ended up winning the Pulitzer Prize. It breaks my heart to imagine the body of work this brilliant young talent might have produced had he not been lost to us too soon.

So consider this just a bit of encouragement from somebody who used to be (and, in many ways, still is) as nervous and uncertain in my craft as you are. You are a writer and the only dues you need pay to be a member of that club is the act of sitting down and writing. The rest of it: publication, fame, fortune, etc, etc, etc, really has nothing to do with it.

Now, go write something.

Ty Drago
Author