#tuesdaytips – is you is or is you ain’t a writer or author
One question that is asked in the writing Facebook groups I
am in is…
What’s the Difference Between A Writer and An Author?
Another way it is asked is… At what point to I become an author
instead of just a writer?
(Let me just say… I hate the phrase… “just a writer.” But
that is for my Friday feelings this week.)
Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette was a French author and journalist
in the early 1900s. She said, “Put down
everything that comes into your head and then you’re a writer. But an author is
one who can judge his own stuff’s worth, without pity, and destroy most of it.”
This quote succinctly describes the difference between a
writer and an author. This quote reminds
us that becoming an author takes effort.
Writing is defined as “the activity or skill of marking coherent words
on paper and composing text,” by Google.com.
that is what Colette is suggesting.
That you as a writer, when you write what comes to your head in a
composed way, you are writing. You are
putting words in sentences, then sentences in paragraphs, then paragraphs in to
essays and pages.
But, being an author takes more effort. To be an author, you must critic and
scrutinize your own work for its merits, value, and worth. You must determine if the writing is good
(style, grammar, quality, and coherence and cohesiveness). You must decide what to keep and what to delete. What do I need, what do I not need? You must read, reread, write, rewrite, revise,
edit, revise again, and edit again. And ultimately,
you must destroy your work.
In my estimation, destroy your work means two things. One, you must delete and remove precious
words, sentences, and paragraphs that you spent your time and talent writing,
but they are not needed. You must dissect
every word, sentence, and paragraph to see if it belongs on the page. You must skillfully determine what matters
for the clarity of the text. Two, you
must be so critical of your work that you almost want to throw some parts of it
or most of it in the trash, even if you feel it is the best thing you ever wrote. Leya Delray said it like this, “Editing. It’s
like dieting; except a lot more violent.”
So, if you just put “coherent words on paper and compose
texts,” you are a writer.
But if you want to be an author, you must go further, and judge your work.
To judge your work is to form an opinion about your work outside of writing it. It is to take a step back and look at it as if you did not write it and you want to obliterate the work. And, that part, is what separates the writer from the author.