Close your eyes and picture in your head a writer. What do you see?
I graduated from the University of Central Arkansas one year before the school started offering a writing degree program. I always thought it was interesting that you could get a degree in writing.
Did that make the person who went through the program a writer? What were the qualifications for this program? Could you teach a person how to write? Is it something taught? Sure the mechanics of writing can be taught, but inspiration? Isn't the talent of writing something you are born with?
I recently received the Alumni magazine from the college. We get one every quarter or so that tells how the school is more improved and offers so much more than it ever did while I was in college. The funny thing is that it is always addressed to my husband who never did graduate from the college, but that is an entirely different article.
Back to the point. This issue features an interview with one of the writing professors. She has the students every year perform the task in the opening paragraph. Every year she gets the same feedback from her students.
Most say they see a man with a feathered pen sitting in a garret. Some say they see a man sitting in a cafe or coffeehouse.
The professor comments on how funny it is since the majority of writers are women and many of the famous ones actually wrote at home, in their car or in an airplane.
It got me to thinking. I have always dreamed of being a writer? But what is considered a writer? Is it someone who is published? Does that mean published online or with a book or in a school yearbook? What is a writer?
I think for so long I have had this same kind of image in my head. I have this dream of being a published author but I put off stories in my head because I don't have time go to the local coffee shop hook up my laptop and create a masterpiece. I have this vision of my kids finally being in school and me having the opportunity to spend the day in the coffeehouse. Something tells me it won't work out that way.
Maybe waking up at one or two in the morning to type madly a story while no kids are tugging on me is part of the writing process. God knows, I can't keep replaying the words in my head all night because I will never get any sleep.
Or maybe to be a writer you have to be a little crazy or drink too much. What is a writer?
I think we as a culture and as writers need to re-examine the stereotypes we have of writers and create new ones.
Writing is something that comes from the heart, which even the non-educated can have a talent of doing. A writer can be your next door neighbor, the crazy teacher at the school, the stay at home dad who is juggling take care of kids and working at home, etc. Anyone can be a writer and I think God makes special types of individuals to be a writer.
What do you think?
