The Difference (If Any) Between An Author And A Writer

THE DIFFERENCE (IF ANY) BETWEEN AN AUTHOR AND A WRITER I’m pleased to admit that over the course of my own career, in reference to each myself and others, I’ve used the phrases “writer” and “creator” entirely interchangeably. In my mind they have all the time been synonyms. But lately I’ve started noticing a building argument on the market as to the difference between being a author and being an writer. This got here to the fore again as I learn Dean Wesley Smith’s Heinlein’s Rules: Five Simple Business Rules for Writing (see my thoughts on the book right here) in which Smith takes a powerful stand on the issue: My definition of a writer is an individual who writes. My definition of an author is an individual who has written. Yeah, I agree, kind of a nasty distinction. I have no respect for authors. I have a ton of respect for writers. He goes on to say: In this modern world of indie publishing, we see a ton of authors out there pushing their one or two or three books, selling them to dying, annoying their 200 Twitter f ollowers and their family on Facebook. Promotion is not writing., That’s just being an writer. Writers are people who write. But then I actually have to ask: aren’t individuals who promote promoters? Marketers? Salespeople? And indie authors should fill those roles that traditionally-revealed authors can (at least partially) rely on their publishers to offer. This angry distinction comes off as greater than a bit hypocritical, frankly, from Dean Wesley-Smith who has fairly an energetic indie publishing enterprise of his personal, which he, one might say, promotes to demise. This isn’t getting us wherever. I’ve been considering a bit these days about the difference between artwork and craft. So is it as simple as: author = artist, writer = craftsman? This tends to make the title of “creator” feel like something to realize, to try for. Self-proclaimed creator Jami Gold in her weblog post “Do You Call Yourself a Writer or an Author?” sees “author” as a title to be c laimed, a mantel of some distinction: But I need folks’s first impression of me to be that I’m a professional writer and take my work significantly, so I declare the title of “author” within the header of my web site. I am a writer as a result of I write, however “author” embodies my goals, my actions, and my perspective toward writing. So I swallow the self-doubt that plagues most of us writers and attempt to reside as much as the word “author.” So then: creator = skilled author, author = aspiring writer? Still not good enough for me. Still too didactic. Maybe: author = author with artistic pretension, author = author without ego? I don’t like that either, although that’s a bit more according to what Dean Wesley-Smith has written. Roland Barthes, in his essay “The Death of the Author” takes a similar tack to Smith in that he sees the status of “creator” as an intrusion on the medium itself, as a type of self- or critic-made villain who does his readers, and the culture, a disservice by being positioned alongside if not above his own work: Authâ€"I mean, Writer, Roland Barthes. The author is a modern determine, produced no doubt by our society insofar as, on the finish of the middle ages, with English empiricism, French rationalism and the private religion of the Reformation, it discovered the prestige of the person, or, to place it more nobly, of the “human person.” Hence it's logical that with regard to literature it must be positivism, resume and the results of capitalist ideology, which has accorded the greatest significance to the writer’s “person.” Barthes continues in an try at separating the writer (the particular person, the artist) from the art itself: the writing: . . . it's language which speaks, not the author: to write down is to reach, by way of a preexisting impersonalityâ€"never to be confused with the castrating objectivity of the sensible novelistâ€"that point where language alone acts, “performs,” a nd not “oneself.” So that, in contrast to the “writer,” the “writer” is separate from his writing ultimately, expressing some larger reality somewhat than wallowing in his own self? . . . the trendy writer, having buried the Author, can due to this fact no longer consider, based on the “pathos” of his predecessors, that his hand is just too slow for his thought or his ardour, and that in consequence, making a legislation out of necessity, he should intensify this gap and endlessly “elaborate” his type; for him, on the contrary, his hand, indifferent from any voice, borne by a pure gesture of inscription (and never of expression), traces a area with out originâ€"or which, no less than, has no other origin than language itself, that is, the very factor which ceaselessly questions any origin. And all this appears to be Barthes’s assertion that a type of post-author world has been achieved, giving birth to a naturalist approach? . . . succeeding the Author, the aut hor not contains within himself passions, humors, sentiments, impressions, however that giant dictionary, from which he derives a writing which may know no end or halt: life can solely imitate the guide, and the book itself is only a tissue of indicators, a lost, infinitely remote imitation. Okay, tell that to J.K. Rowling. Clearly the period of the Author (capital supposed) is much from behind us. I’ve seen some indication that the distinction between “writer” and “writer” is that the title “author” denotes a point of success and/or legitimacy as an individual who uses writing to communicate concepts and emotions, whereas the word “writer” might think of somebody who writes catalog copy or insurance coverage pamphlets or other works of utilitarian communication meant neither to entertain nor illuminate. Robin Storey, in “Writer V Authorâ€"What’s The Difference?” seems to be coming at it from that angle: On the surface there doesn’t seem to be a lot differe nce, but I’ve at all times known there was, without stopping to analyse why. But as I’m about to publish my first novel on Amazon, with a second to follow a few weeks after, I now consider myself as an creator, not a writer. Somehow author has a extra genuine, professional ring to it. An author is someone who takes their writing significantly and infrequently makes a profession of it, whereas a author could possibly be composing lengthy, lovelorn sonnets of their attic for years with no one being any the wiserâ€"not that there’s something incorrect with that, should you occur to be a budding Byron. But I’ve additionally gotten the feeling that, by definition, “writer” is a selected type of author, who expresses him/herself in guide type as opposed to other certain types of writers like playwrights, screenwriters, copywriters, and so forth.? That would possibly get us, finally, to a distinction I can log out on, personally. If I’ve written a e-book, I can be described a s the creator of that book. If I’ve written a play, call me a playwright. When I write poetry, I am a poet. And yes, I am deliberately ignoring the word “novelist.” I guess you can make an additional distinction that a novelist is someone who writes novels, but then we’re starting to get into what feels to me to be an unwieldy sequence of specific differentials: novelist, memoirist, biographer . . . How essential are those distinctions? In the top I are likely to agree with author Nicole Evelina, from her blog submit “Author vs. Writer”: Really, it boils down to semantics. Oftentimes, I use the phrases “author” and “author” interchangeably, as a result of actually, they imply the identical thingâ€"someone who writes. If you requested me which I favor, I’d say “creator,” only because to me, that is more evocative of the literary nature of what I do. You can “write” something (and I write all day long for my day job, so I know): newsletters, articles, ad copy, cereal box textual content, instruction manuals. But the word “author” appears to me to be extra reserved for those who write literary works: books, poems, performs, and so forth. That’s why I prefer it. It speaks to who I am. I’ve been utilizing it since my writing grew to become more than an occasional pastime and I plan on using it well into my future days as a best-seller. Call yourself what you want, then, right? Just don’t succumb to the temptation to use either “writer” or “writer” as a pejorative. I’ll rise up for either or both. â€"Philip Athans Where Story Meets Worldâ„¢ Look to Athans & Associates Creative Consulting for story/line/developmental enhancing at three ¢ per word. About Philip Athans Hmmm, now I’m tempted to go together with: “I AM a author, I’m the creator of X.” With the distinction of 1 is what you do/who you are, and the other is what you’ve done. Just struggled with this the other day when writing my first authors bio. Finally settled on writer however I guess actually in a sense I am each . It’s a weird distinction. In the past few years I’ve started to use “Author” as a profession title and “Writer” as an outline or casual term. I’ll joke about meeting up with different writers for double w group conferences (wine and whining) or I’ll make sarcastic comments in regards to the “glamorous writing life” once I inform folks I had to spend the day scrubbing my toilet or taking good care of sick youngsters. But after I first meet people and that dialog comes up of “what do you do?” I’ve discovered that saying “I’m an author” will get me “oh something I might need learn?” vs. when I say “oh I’m a author” and I g et “oh you’re a kind of mommy bloggers/you freelance advert copy/you’re making an attempt to publish a book”. And possibly that happens more because I’m a girl in a cookie cutter east coast suburb but I’ve found when I say “writer” people assume it’s just a bit interest I’ve picked up for the reason that kids are in school but when I say “creator” folks all of a sudden notice that I earn my paycheck by putting fingers to keyboard every single day. Funny how the title of author is seen as being lesser when it’s actually the one which speaks of the work , dedication and love that goes into a writing profession. I had puzzled since I’ve printed tons of of essays on my weblog and completed writing a novel. Among other writers, author appears to connote having revealed a guide. I’m querying mine and am near ending one other. I nonetheless don’t know if I can call myself an writer… Fill in your particulars below or click on an icon to log in: You are comm enting utilizing your WordPress.com account. (Log Out/ Change) You are commenting utilizing your Google account. (Log Out/ Change) You are commenting utilizing your Twitter account. (Log Out/ Change) You are commenting utilizing your Facebook account. (Log Out/ Change) Connecting to %s Notify me of new feedback by way of e mail. Notify me of new posts through e-mail. Enter your e-mail tackle to subscribe to Fantasy Author's Handbook and receive notifications of latest posts by e mail. Join 4,779 different followers Sign me up! RSS - Posts RSS - Comments