When you began your writing career, was it hard to say that you were an author? It could be to oneself. Or it could be saying it out loud to other people.

I know for me, it was. My writing group had quite a few who thought like me. No matter how many times the group leader tried to convince us, it was not working. One day she wrote on the board a rule for the group. We were not allowed to say we were not authors/writers.

We laughed. Our group leader did not.

I felt unless I had something published, I had no right to make that claim. It turned out that others felt this way, and others still do.

And it was not until I became a freelance writer and published author did I make that claim to myself and the world.

And this is a shame. I know writers who write for pure pleasure and are OK if they never get published. They call themselves writers. I have a writer friend who will stop once her book is published. She is content with that prospect. She calls herself a writer.

Yet on the other side of the coin, I know authors who don’t have this issue. For them, they are writers from the get-go, and nothing will stop them from saying so.

Experiences in our lives mold what we think and do. What works for one does not work for the other.

I wish the singularity that binds authors together would be us all calling ourselves authors and saying it to others.