You Are A Writer When

We Fear Discovering That We Are More Than We Think We Are. More Than Our Parents/children/teachers Think We Are. We Fear That We Actually Possess The Talent That Our Still, Small Voice Tells Us. That We Actually Have The Guts, The Perseverance, The Capacity. We Fear That We Truly Can Steer Our Ship, Plant Our Flag, Reach Our Promised Land. We Fear This Because, If It’s True, Then We Become Estranged From All We Know. We Pass Through A Membrane. We Become Monsters And Monstrous.

Sometimes, When We're Terrified Of Embracing Our True Calling, We'll Pursue A Shadow Calling Instead. That Shadow Career Is A Metaphor For Our Real Career. Its Shape Is Similar, Its Contours Feel Tantalizingly The Same. But A Shadow Career Entails No Real Risk. If We Fail At A Shadow Career, The Consequences Are Meaningless To Us. Are You Pursuing A Shadow Career?

We’re All Pros Already. 1) We Show Up Every Day 2) We Show Up No Matter What 3) We Stay On The Job All Day 4) We Are Committed Over The Long Haul 5) The Stakes For Us Are High And Real 6) We Accept Remuneration For Our Labor 7) We Do Not Overidentify With Our Jobs 8 ) We Master The Technique Of Our Jobs 9) We Have A Sense Of Humor About Our Jobs 10) We Receive Praise Or Blame In The Real World

Picasso Painted With Passion, Mozart Composed With It. A Child Plays With It All Day Long. You May Think You’ve Lost Your Passion, Or That You Can’t Identify It, Or That You Have So Much Of It, It Threatens To Overwhelm You. None Of These Is True.

Right Now With Blogs And The Flood Of Internet Access, A Multitude Of Aspiring Writers Think They're Ready For Prime Time. They're Not. Be Great. Read. Write. Bust Your Ass. Learn And Find Your Voice. As Hard As You Think It Is, It's A Hundred Times Harder.