Thinking out loud:

Is blogging writing? Are bloggers writers? Bloggers write. Writers blog. Teachers write. Teachers blog. Others read.  Others understand and respond. Isn't that what writers expect? But what if there is no other writing than the blog posts? What if majority of the blog posts are just best first drafts? In blogging there is no critic or editor to point at the flaws or guide to higher quality. When can one call herself/himself a writer? Who decides? Is there a line to cross?

Everyone can learn to write. Everyone should learn to write to engage the reader, whether a family member, a friend or a blog reader. Everyone can learn to write well.  The choice of words is the same for all of us. The writers don't keep their craft a secret. But I believe it takes more than craft lessons and daily writing for someone to become a writer.  Writers have to be courageous to open their hearts to whirlwind of emotions, dig deep in the corners of the human mind, and venture to unexplored territories. They use their imagination to envision possibilities beyond the ordinary, sieve through million ideas to find the unforgettable, and choose just right words with their sharp eyes and musical ears. Writers need patience and time to arrange, rearrange, polish, and revise words to perfection, to write texts that please the soul, captivate the heart, brighten the mind, surprise, mesmerize,  hook us with each following word, trigger tears or laughter, change us. Writers have an irresistible pull to live through written words, existence almost impossible without writing, and they achieve peace only by taming ideas on paper. For some writing is their whole life, their being.

Or is it enough for a person to call oneself a writer? Good or bad or marvelous will be the decision of the readers and critics. Or maybe we have to look at a continuum - the novice, the amateur, the practitioner, the master?

writer  writer writer writer writer Writer