Artist

Introduction and Caveat

Hello, and welcome to my page about writing. If you have arrived at this page free of skepticism and are assuming that everything I say will be gospel, I would pose that you are missing key critical thinking skills that you will need to write for most genres and age groups. You should be asking yourself, "Who is this guy and what qualifies him to give anyone advice on writing?" If that question or some variation of it was in your mind when you arrived, bravo!

I will answer that question in brief. I began constructing stories from the time I could lift pencil to paper and put together a string of words. At the time of this writing, I have spent nearly a quarter century making my living writing non-fiction in the IT industry. This includes articles, white papers, manuals, help documentation, specifications, and a full gamut of project documentation. I also have eight fantasy books published through a small publishing house. While not one of the "Big 5," this is an actual, real publisher, not a vanity press and not self-publishing.

What's more, I have read thousands of books by highly skilled authors. That is, I believe, more important than years of academic study on the subject. Academically, while I do hold a certificate in technical communication my areas of study were business and management. I have a BA in Organizational Management and an MBA with a focus on global business.

It should be understood that different writers have different processes that work best for them. My purpose here is not to cite any rules that you must follow. I often have strong opinions on various aspects of writing. I have certainty on these things because through decades of trial and error I have found what works best for me. I continue to hone my skills through practical application of my process, as we all must do in whatever process we use. If something I say sounds interesting or workable to you, try it. If it helps, great. If not, find something that does.

While I do have extensive experience writing non-fiction, this page is dedicated to fiction.

The topics on this page are among those I have most commonly seen. Unfortunately, when seeking answers to these and other questions on social media, responses contain as much misinformation or contradictory information as real information. Those who best know the answers only infrequently have the time it takes to deliver those answers in a meaningful way. However knowledgeable you may judge me to be or not to be, compiling the information and making it available on this page saves me an inestimable about of time because I actually do have a desire to help others when possible.

I will preface everything with this idea: The main goal of the writer is to have emotional impact on the reader. If we cannot agree on that simple idea, there's probably not much point in your continuing to read this page.

I also have the view that if one is going to put in effort to do anything, they should at least attempt to do it in a professional manner. If you aren't going to try to do it well, why bother doing it at all?

The goal of this page is not to spew out highly complicated concepts or to make myself seem learned. My purpose is to take things that are often over-complicated or over-thought and simplify them so that you can have a foundation or basic point of reference from which to grow and hone your writing skills.

What is a story?

This is probably the best place to start. What are the bare minimum ingredients to a story?

Characters: This is arguably the most basic aspect of a story. The story is happening to someone. The reader will be rooting for or against a character or characters. The characters may or may not be human but they will have identifiable traits, good and bad, that the reader can recognize and they can compare and/or contrast those traits to their own life experience. The more those traits align with what they have seen and experienced, the more "real" the characters will seem to them. When the character acts or reacts in ways that are inconsistent with what the reader would normally expect, we need to provide a reason for this difference or we will lose our audience.

Writing believable characters requires knowing how a lot of different types of people react in various situations. By this, I do not mean you study psychology or psychiatry to see what they say on the subject. I mean you have to study people. When you are out in the world, observe people interacting with each other and just with the environment. Experiment by talking to people you don't know.

Many writers might be challenged by this, claiming to be shy or an introvert. I fell into that category myself once upon a time and, despite countless claims I've heard that "people can't change," I am that no longer. I'm not saying you have to change - I'm saying you're going to have to make a decision about what is more important to you, writing believable characters or going outside your comfort zone. Nobody ever said this was going to be easy.

You can supplement this by watching movies and shows where the characters are really engaging. You can also read well-written books and stories where the characters are really well-developed. However, nothing replaces experience with and observation of real people.

Also, I have more below on Writing Believable Characters.

Conflict: The reader can't root for a character if there is no conflict. Conflict doesn't necessarily mean a fight or violence; it simply means there are goals within the story that do not align. A good story will have many conflicts that run the gamut between small and large. Joe wants to have pizza for dinner and his date wants sushi. That's not earth-shattering, but it's a conflict. Overcoming that may be simple or the argument may be the last straw that destroys the relationship. The stakes of the conflict in the story can be earth-shattering or they can be very personal.

Is that it? That's really the bare minimum. There are a myriad of other components that can be included in any story.

What about plot? Every story has a plot if it has characters working to resolve a conflict or achieve a goal. The plot is what they do and their successes and failures as they attempt to overcome difficulties along the way. Plots can range from simple to highly complex. This will vary by genre and target audience. The plot is, essentially, the story.

Story Ideas

I think this is a good point to speak briefly about story ideas. What is a good idea? What is a bad idea? Where do ideas come from?

In general, no idea is intrinsically good or bad. What makes it good or bad is all in the execution. How you write it -- how you turn that idea into an actual story. "But my idea sounds great!" What that means is it interests you and you see its potential in a story. However, that potential may or may not ever be realized. A good writer can take an innocuous idea and create a brilliant story from it. A poor writer can take an idea with easy potential and destroy it.

Here is a maxim you can take to heart: There is no scarcity of ideas. Ideas are a dime a dozen. If you believe you have a limit to ideas you will have a difficult time of it. You should not be searching for "good ideas." You should be noting down any and all ideas that come to you. Don't try to find "that one fantastic idea." Find a gazillion ideas. Weave them together. Tear them apart. Make them great by how you put them in your story. The world around you is full of ideas and inspiration. Be open to them. Look for them. Let them come to you.

If you ever feel like you are running out of ideas for your story -- stop. Give yourself twenty minutes and try to come up with ten ideas for completely different stories. Do NOT limit these to "good" ideas. Focus on quantity. Quality comes from actually writing the story.

Rules and Tricks for Writing

As soon as you start looking into writing -- joining various writing groups on FB or other social media, or taking classes, or any other vaunted source of "helpful" information -- you start hearing about things such as arcs and beats or any number of other rules, some of which I will address directly on this page. For the most part, I ignore these things. At least, I ignore them as a goal or as something I attempt to apply or follow.

There are a number of things that happen naturally when writing a story that academics can discover through careful analysis and they can then express those as "rules," but those stories weren't written with any intent to follow those rules. They were written with the intent to tell the story well.

Here is an analogy to explain what I mean by this. When you speak you manipulate your lips, tongue, cheeks, but you aren't usually thinking about that when you're speaking (unless you're trying to overcome a speech impediment.) When you learn to speak as a child you aren't thinking of these things; you simply learn to speak through listening to others, experimentation, and trial and error. If, in that process of learning, someone was enforcing that you must manipulate your mouth in a certain way for each sound this would likely have slowed down your learning process as well as slowing your speech. Sounding natural also would have likely been a challenge.

If you are having trouble with a certain aspect of writing, my first piece of advice would be to read well-written examples of that aspect and pay attention to what the author is doing. Unfortunately, that isn't a quick and dirty resolution to your problem. In this day of instant information and instant gratification, people are looking for shortcuts. I'm not here to give you shortcuts. Another, perhaps faster, option would be to find a book about writing that aspect by an author you admire whose work you have already read. When you read what they have to say on the subject, you will recall the stories you have read and connect that to what they are saying. Then try to do what they are suggesting. And of course, throughout the process, keep writing and experimenting.

Research for your Story

The old maxim is to write what you know. I would pose this is more accurate looking at it from the other side: Don't write what you don't know.

I have read too many books where the author referred to something that they clearly did not know about. When that happens, it throws me out of the story to some degree; sometimes a little and sometimes a lot. Examples:

• A pre-technology country has an extensive underground mine that is a secret, and they simply dump the displaced earth in a nearby ravine, and the people doing the mining are not miners.
  
  No. An extensive underground mine would collapse without experts giving direction. An extensive mine would quickly fill any ravine, the ore from the mine would be processed somewhere, a lot of timber would be needed for support, the supply lines to the mines and the production lines from the mines would not long be kept secret. There are a number of ways that these problem could be solved, but ignoring them is a mistake. Perhaps the mine is secret because it is disguised as producing something much less valuable. Maybe they hired expert mine engineers from outside. Solutions abound if you know to look for them.
  
  
• Military science fiction where a lieutenant salutes and calls a sergeant, "sir."
  
  Nope. That's backwards.
  
  
• A character looks at a wrecked motorcycle and the first adjective that comes to their mind is, "dented." Not bent, twisted, ground, or scraped. The only thing that would be dented is the gas tank, and that would be much less obvious than all the surrounding damage. The author was clearly thinking of a car, not a motorcycle. Having been in more than one motorcycle accident, I can tell you there is a difference.

The above are easy examples and some of them might seem small or insignificant. I want to emphasize that I didn't notice them because I was being critical while reading. I read for pleasure with the goal of immersing myself in the story; I noticed them because they were simply wrong. It would not have taken much research on the part of the author to discover for themselves that it was wrong, and that is just being lazy.

If your character is a sailor and there is any sailing or discussion of sailing in your story, put in some research on the subject.

If your characters are going to be riding horses to get anywhere, research how far you can expect a horse to travel in a day carrying a rider as well as other things relating to horses and travel by horse.

Did you know that in the USA, in some states the National Guard is called the State Guard? I didn't know that until I looked into it. But many people in the referenced state would have instantly recognized I was full of it had I used the wrong term. Which one is applicable to your story?

Military structure and procedure differ not just between branches of the military, but also between countries.

If you have some kind of floating city in the sky, they have to get resources from someplace. Grain for bread will not be local; there will be supply lines and trade agreements and who knows what else. For more information on this line of thinking, refer to the section on Worldbuilding below.

The bottom line is that you must research. I have heard, "I don't have time to do a bunch of research." You don't have to get a doctorate on every subject. With the internet, you can learn a lot very quickly. Look at a few images or wrecked motorcycles and you'll find your descriptions are much better than they would otherwise have been.

Do not discount the importance of research for your writing.

Worldbuilding

Worldbuilding is something that mainly comes into play for fantasy, science fiction, paranormal, or alternate reality stories.

Worldbuilding is the author working out how their world, or their version of the world, works. I see worldbuilding as a category of research. Research is finding out how something works so you can correctly use it or describe it in your story. This holds true for your world, even if you are the one creating it.

I have sometimes seen people refer to worldbuilding as something written in the story itself. This is incorrect. Separate from your story, you create your world with whatever level of detail you will need to support the story - that is world BUILDING. Within the story, relating the world to your reader is world DESCRIBING. This is also known as setting the scene. It is important to remember that as the author, you will need far more information about your world than the reader ever will. Much of the work you do in worldbuilding is strictly for your own reference to ensure that your characters and setting are all operating consistently within the same overall context.

Does your world have to follow the same rules as the real world? No, it does not. However, until you let them know otherwise, your reader will assume things work the same way; you will need to let them know specifically that the particular aspect is different and it needs to make sense.

It can be easy to go down the rabbit-hole and be forever worldbuilding and never actually get into writing your story. You have to watch out for that. Focus on those things that will actually have an impact on the story and the characters.

Showing and Telling

"Show don't tell" is one of the most common (and in my opinion, useless and pedantic) pieces of advice bandied about by writers and academics alike.

Background: The concept originates from a quote by Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) the Russian playwright and short story author. The line was: "Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass."

"Ah ha!" say many. "So simple, beautiful, and profound! This is the secret! The Holy Grail of writing!"

Really? But what, exactly, does it mean? Isn't all writing telling, since it uses words and not images?

To decipher its purpose we should identify the audience to whom Chekhov was directing this comment. Victorian narratives of the time had veered to long-winded explanations and mental wanderings that rendered the stories dull and boring; they were, perhaps, an intellectual exercise but carried little that could evoke emotional impact. It was those authors to whom he spoke. If you write in that outdated style, you should also take it as directed to you.

Still, the question persists. What does it mean in practical terms? In addition to that, why would I say it is useless advice?

• Seasoned writers know what it means and how to apply it. They have no need to hear this.
  
  
• New writers don't understand it and will always need a broken-down explanation of how to use the idea. Quoting "show don't tell" to them is wasting time. Move on to the actual details -- the actual concept rather than the sound byte.

In truth, Chekhov did quite a bit of showing in his writing. Any effective piece of writing will have a balance of summarizing information and providing evocative detail. How you do this depends on factors such as the pacing of the story and the scene, and where you want to direct your readers' attention. For example, you can describe the rising bubbles, the steam, and the feeling of humidity in the air, or you can say "the water boiled in the pot." Which one enhances the story? Sometimes one and sometimes the other - not every piece of associated information belongs in the story and it takes judgement to know what to include and what not to include; when to paint an image and when to summarize. There is no "one size fits all" answer. That's where your experience as a reader and as a writer will help you. That is the long and short of show don't tell and there is nothing mystical about it at all.

Planning and Plotting

How much planning is needed for your story?

There are many schools of thought on this subject. For some authors, planners, they need to plan out every chapter in fine detail in order to write. Others do no planning at all - I term this style of author as a discovery writer.

At this stage in my writing, I do very little planning and I find out what happens next along with the characters. My planning is focused on worldbuilding and identifying my characters. Give me a genre, a setting, and a character or two and I'll figure out a story and a conflict from there. The more planning I do, the more predictable my story becomes and the less authenticity in how my characters behave; it's too contrived. I am not saying that the work of planners is predicable with poor characterization, I am saying I function better by focusing on the characters than adhering to a preconceived plot. My characters grow and change in unpredictable ways at unpredictable times and I can do this more organically if I have fewer arbitrary restrictions. I will also say that the closer you get to the ending of a story the more you will need to know about that ending.

Whether you work best as a planner or as a discovery writer is something you will have to discover for yourself. Also, this may change over time.

Dialog

This is something that a lot of writers struggle with: how to write believable, natural dialog. The best way to know how to write good dialog is to observe and participate in a LOT of conversations with many different types of people. You can't write believable dialog if you don't know how people talk with each other.

I use an approach I call Method Writing. I adapted this from method acting wherein the actor essentially becomes the character. My characters are basically a patchwork of things I have seen in real people but put together in a way to create someone new. I step into that character's shoes to react and speak as they would react and speak. Then I jump into the other character's shoes and do the same from that perspective. In this way, the dialog is not contrived and comes across as more genuine. Do not have a character say something for the sole purpose of you, the writer, informing the reader about something. Give your character their own clear and valid motivation for saying what they say.

Writing Believable Characters

The first thing to understand is that, for all intents and purposes, charactes are people. These people are the cast for your story. They are individuals with their own unique pasts and stories. Of course, you do not need to delve into every character to the same degree. However, a reader will recognize when a character behaves in a way that is inconsistent with what they know and have seen about that character. When this occurs, the story starts to come across as being contrived. Characters have a reason for doing everything they do, though those reasons may be flawed or illogical. Those reasons will always be about that character's unique viewpoint of the universe, and when they behave unnaturally for themselves, it appears that the purpose of the action was something the writer made them do for the plot. That can pull your reader out of the story.

There are a number of aspects to take into account for writing believable characters. The main one is covered above in Dialog. However, this speaks to Method Writing and becoming the character. How can you become the character if you don't know the character? First, observe and/or interact with a lot of people. Real life, not just online or fiction. I know that's not what shy/introverted people want to hear, but it's the most effective way to start. As I said earlier, "My characters are basically a patchwork of things I have seen in real people but put together in a way to create someone new." I couldn't do that without direct interaction with a lot of people. Characters should be seen as people. If you want to portray believable people you need to experience people.

There are really at least three different versions for you character: who they are now, who they were in the past, and who they will become through the story. Understanding these three versions are key to writing believable characters.

Now: The most important is the character as they are now in your story. What kind of person are they? How smart, educated, empathetic, courteous, communicative, or outgoing are they? Each of those traits, and more, should be looked at on a gradient scale from completely opposite to very high on the scale. This will determine how your character acts and reacts in any given situation. Part of who they are now includes their motivation; why do they have the goals that they have? What is their rationale for their current attitudes about things? Some of that rationale may be based on things they have experienced in the past.

Backstory: Every character will have some history. Even if your story starts with an amnesiac character with no recollection of their past, they still came from somewhere. That will influence who they are now. Some writers feel they need to weave a complex backstory for their characters. To me, that has very limited value. I use character backstory to influence the plot. I have already determined enough about the character now that I don't need to reverse engineer it to justify the current state. I also don't feel I need to demonstrate to the reader "why I know my character would act this way based on my formidable knowledge of psychology." You are highly unlikely to ever encounter the word "trauma" in my stories unless I'm talking about physical injury. That's the kind of thing I prefer to show than tell. (See above.)

I'm not interested in carrying on a debate about nature vs. nurture. You are free to disagree, but I see this as we come into a life as a spirit that is not entirely a blank slate - we have innate attributes and tendencies. We get a body that has various strengths and weaknesses and this influences how our attitudes change and develop. And we have an environment that helps and/or hinders our development in numerous ways. I also believe in the power of choice and the ability to change.

How much do you need to know about your character's backstory to understand your character? On one hand, that depends on a number of things and the nature of the story. On the other hand, think of it this way: when you meet someone new and develop a friendship with them, you observe their actions and reactions, you hear what they say, and you develop an understanding of who they are in present time. Along the way, you may or may not pick up some tidbits about their backstory but knowing who they are now doesn't require that. When you learn something of their past that may give you a sense of, "oh, that's why they act that way." However, knowing it hadn't been required for your observations of the now. And remember, sometimes it is better to have your reader speculate about things that to answer all their questions. Readers with no questions have no need to keep reading.

Who they will become: This is character development. Now, not every character, or even every main character, has to change and develop through the story. For example, if you are writing a series of detective stories it can be more about solving a mystery rather than character development. However, most story types do require your main character to learn and grow. Regardless of the degree to which you plan out your story, this aspect should be part of your consideration for how the story will feel at the end. If you are fully embracing Method Writing these changes should come about organically as you write the story. Even so, it's good to have a concept of the new state toward which your character is progressing.

Naming your Characters

This is something that comes up frequently. For some reason, this is especially so for fantasy. While names are indeed very important, I believe that many authors overthink the subject. At least, I think they are concerned about the wrong things.

How are people named in your world? There are many ways in which people (think of them as people, not as characters) are named. In most English-speaking countries today, when child is born the parents choose a name for them. Often, this name is chosen before the child is even born.

• It may be the name of some relative or the name of some celebrity.
  
  
• It could be a name that has a nice sound in the parents' opinion.
  
  
• The parents may even look at what different names mean and choose one that they hope will describe who their child will become. Personally, I believe the child almost never becomes the meaning of the name they are given at birth and they are more likely to rebel against it than conform to it. The parents were not looking at the character that you, the author, are observing; the parents were looking at a crying, hungry baby and that is the creature to which they gave a name. Avoid a contrived or cliché name for your character.
  
  
• Particularly creative parents may simply invent a new name for their child. Alternatively, they might invent an alternate spelling of an existing name. I would advise caution in using non-phonetic inventions for existing names.

In some cultures, people have a child name and an adult name. The first they are given when they are born. The second may occur at a particular age (or other milestone) to mark a coming-of-age or transition to adulthood and at that point they no longer use the child name. The adult/new name may be given by some person or authority or the name may be chosen by the person themself. In this case, the meaning of the name might be more relevant.

I have spent countless hours gleaning the internet for names. I compiled a database with thousands of names along with the origins and, when known, the meaning. I have them identified as to whether they are male, female, or neutral. (The attribute I use the least is the meaning.) For my fantasy series, I try to stick to a specific ethnic source for a particular fantasy race - the intent is to have a similar sound to the names within each fantasy race. However, I will often make tweaks to these names for various reasons. For many of my races, female names end in vowels and male names end in consonants - I will make adjustments to the name to fit that convention.

I try to avoid names that are too common from any particular ethnic source. For example, I have a race whose names are based on Slavic names, but I would not use Ivan. I do use the meanings to identify names I will not use, such as names whose meanings are associated with deities or particular places. Even with all of this work, I often simply make up a name that has the sound I'm after. I am much more concerned with the sound of the name than with the meaning. In real life, I don't think I have ever asked anyone for the meaning of their name.

For the most part, you should not be concerned if the name you have chosen is used by another author in some other story, movie, game, etc. However, I would avoid using widely known names, such as Galadriel or Daenerys. Don't name your detective Sherlock.

There are a gazillion names out there and a gazillion more that you can just make up. Don't be afraid to play with the names. For example, I like the idea of how the name Jennifer is a variation of Gwenivere. I came up with my own variation and named a character Genevané. I love that version more than any of the existing variations.

Voice

This is something that a lot of new writers tend to associate as being some aspect of themselves. "It's my voice. It's me."

No.

Voice is a tool, not a personality trait of the author.

A competent writer can choose the appropriate voice to use for any given project. Of course, you've probably heard the expression: If the only tool in your toolbox is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a nail. If you find yourself using the same voice in every project it's time to start experimenting with other voices. You can write in a dozen genres to vastly different audiences and you should be using the voice that will best communicate the story and create emotional impact for your target audience.

One key thing is to make sure you are consistent in whatever voice you have chosen for the project.

Alpha and Beta Readers

It is very important to know your genre and your audience. Alpha and beta readers are key to ensuring you understand and are connecting with your audience and I have a page dedicated to just this subject: Alpha and Beta Readers.

Writer's Block

Eventually, it is likely that every writer will face some form of writer's block. It can be ugly, but don't let it send you into fits of depression. There are things you can do.

Statistically, the most common source for writer's block has to do with hats. And by "hat" I mean job. On a train, engineers and conductors wear different hats. One way you can easily tell which you are dealing with is by their hat. Each hat signifies a different job. As authors, we have different hats we must wear. When wearing the writer hat, it is our job to write. That's all. Put those words and sentences onto the page. We also have an editor hat. Once something is written, we put on the editor hat and go back through and fix what was written. The most common source of writer's block is trying to wear the editor hat when you should be wearing the writer hat. You start to formulate something from the writer hat and your editor hat rejects it as not being good enough before it even hits the page. The solution is to only wear one hat at a time. It doesn't matter how horrible you think the words sound in your head, stop worrying about how good it sounds and just get it down - you can always come back later and clean it up.

Does this mean you should never edit when you write? No, it does not. This is a skill, and as with all skills it develops and improves over time. After you have written a million words or so you should start to become adept with it. The key is that you don't let it stop you from writing. Be alert for what is happening. Are you discarding ideas instead of writing them? Stop it. Put your writer hat firmly on your head and start writing.

If this is just the most common reason, that means there could be another reason, right? Right. If you run into writer's block and the above doesn't handle it for you, you will need to identify what is going on and handle it.

For myself, when I am stymied in forward progress it is usually because there is something I don't know enough about to be able to proceed. I need context. I have to take a step back and figure out what that is and learn about it before I can move forward. The first time it happened for me, I had marched my merry band of characters across a continent to get to an important city. I got them there, but I had no idea what the city was like. I was stuck. Once I figured out the architecture and the general layout, I was good to go. For me, I couldn't put my characters in a city if I had no concept of that city. Maybe for others it would not have been an issue, but it was for me. The missing information could be anything, big or small. Information about real-world things can be researched. (See the section on this page about research for more information.) If you are dealing with an alternate reality or fantasy world, you will have to create your answers. (See the section on this page about worldbuilding for more information.) Maybe you need information about local government or law enforcement. Maybe you have to figure out the internal politics and operations for an organization or corporation. Maybe there is just something about one of your characters that you need to know more about. It's not always easy, but the solution is to figure out what you're missing and fill in the gaps. I don't always know right away what it is that I'm missing, and that can be frustrating. I look at where my characters are and where they are about to go or who they are about to interact with and figure out what it is in that equation I don't understand. Once that is solved, I can move forward again.

Hopefully one of the two solutions above will resolve your situation. If not, you will have to find it for yourself. Be aware of your writing process. If you hit a block, don't focus on frustration about the block. Instead, look at what is happening. Where, exactly, is your writing process going astray? What thought or question or what-have-you is popping up to interfere with that process? Once you have found the source, the solution should be apparent.

Workshops

Yes, writing workshops can be very helpful. But check the creds of a workshop before jumping in. Do those giving the workshops actually have production history to indicate they know what they are talking about?

The Writers of the Future Contest offers a free, online, intermediate writing workshop. I've done it and found it to be extremely helpful. You can check it out here: Writers of the Future Online Workshop

When can I Call Myself a Writer?

This is a very common question. First, let's take a step back and ask why you are looking for a label, and to what purpose are you wanting to apply this label. Is it to make yourself feel as though you have achieved some status? Only the actual work can do this in a meaningful way. Is it to convince others you have achieved some status? If so, that's just your insecurity talking. It matters not one whit what others think of your status.

Next, when you are looking at the label of "writer," what exactly do you mean by that? There's an old concept that if you give enough monkeys enough typewriters, eventually they will duplicate the works of Shakespeare. Does that make them writers? Technically, if you can scribble a letter on a piece of paper you have written and thereby may be considered a writer. But is that the standard you are setting for yourself to use the label? If so, I'm not sure what value there would be to use the label if that is the minimum peak of achievement required.

If scribbling a letter or a word on a piece of paper is not of sufficient standard to make the label of writer as worthwhile, what then should that standard be?

Perhaps "writer" is therefore insufficient as a stand-alone label. If you earn a living from writing, you can say "professional writer." Does that mean you are good at your craft? Not necessarily, but none can gainsay your use of the label.

You may also consider the qualifier of "successful." However, successful is a relative term that won't mean the same thing to everyone. Not to mention, there are different levels of success.

There is another term that has fallen out of use. Aspiring writer. Simply put, aspiring means you are trying to become successful as a writer. In that light, one is either an aspiring writer or a successful writer.

My first goal in writing was to complete and publish a fantasy book that I started writing somewhere around high school. I worked on that book for over 25 years. In the last six years of that, I became a technical writer as my day job. I also wrote articles and white papers on the side. I was writing for a living and while by any standards that qualified me to be a professional writer and a successful writer, I still had not achieved my goal.

Fifteen years after finishing that book, I began another fantasy story. Between January of 2021 and July of 2024 I wrote and published 7 books to complete that series, and I was able to do that without resorting to self-publishing. I only published that first novel after publishing book 5 of that series.

At long last, I had completed my first writing goal. The bundle of books 1-4 of my series made the Apple Best Seller list for fantasy ebooks. At this point, I would say I could call myself a successful writer, though a myriad of examples immediately present themselves for writers who are immensely more successful than I am, and those who have surpassed me in much less time. Do I call myself a writer? I'm not really interested in labels. Instead, I say what I do. I write. I write fantasy books and science fiction. What I do is much more important than any label I would brandish on the subject.

If you are still worrying about whether you can call yourself a writer, decide what type of writer you mean. Aspiring? Successful? Professional? Use the one that seems most appropriate to you and stop asking for permission.

Should I Self-Publish or Traditionally Publish?

There's no easy answer to that, only considerations to take into account.

First, it should be understood that a traditional publisher is not someone you pay to get your work published. If you are paying, they are a vanity publisher. Vanity publishing is a fancier way of going to Kinko's to print your story. Anyone can do it and it doesn't give you any credibility as a writer.

Of course, you get the most credibility from traditional publishing. However, traditional publishing is the most difficult means of getting published. A lot of the big publishers only take submissions from agents, and getting an agent isn't generally an easy process either. In terms of resources, traditional publishing usually takes a lot of time. You submit, wait for an answer, submit somewhere else, and repeat until, hopefully, someone says, "Yes!"

The process can be long and grueling. And soul-crushingly frustrating. (You adverb-haters are loving that.) But wait! There's another solution! Self-publishing.

You can self-publish on Amazon for nothing. You'll have a learning curve to get your book into the right format. No fancy cover art is required. Bibbety-bobbity-boom! Your book is officially published! Of course, no one is buying it because no one has heard of it or you and there are a gazillion other books to choose form. If you actually want people to read your book, you'll need to get something nice on the cover to attract attention. This can be done for anywhere between a few bucks and a few thousand, depending on how much you want to invest.

You will also need to figure out how to do some advertising and marketing, and all the expenses for that come out of your pocket. You will find a plethora of companies out there who are happy to take your money to do this for you, and there are good ones and bad ones.

Effectively self-publishing requires more money out-of-pocket, no question. And you have to learn to wear a lot more hats than just writing. It is up to you whether this is something you want to undertake. Some people enjoy the challenge and some don't. Not to mention, even if you traditionally publish, you may be asked to do some of your own marketing.

Another factor is that since there is no gate-keeper, no quality enforcement, there are a LOT of poorly written self-published books. There are also a lot of self-published books that are excellent. I myself have become leery of self-published books because of how frequently I have DNF'd [Do Not Finish] self-published books. Even traditionally published books can be poorly written, but that's much less likely. Chances are, I'm not going to risk it with a self-published book by an author with whom I am not familiar.

I myself went with traditional publishing. I was fortunate to be picked up by a small publisher. Had that not occurred, I may have gone the route of self-publishing as I am not the most patient person with these things. As with so many other aspects of writing, it's not a one-size-fits-all proposition and you have to decide for yourself what's best for you.