What Does it Mean to be a Writer Today?

When presented with the project of creating a screencast for a writing arts course at my college, this was the question I wanted, most of all, to answer. In a world of twitter, blogging, and too many writing programs to count, what does it mean to be an aspiring author?

I posed the answer in this screencast, made using the presentation website Prezi, and as screencapture program known as Jing (also with the help of my boyfriend, who let me use his Macbook when my netbook proved unable to handle screencasting).

But if you don't want to hear my lovely voice, I'll offer a textual alternative for you. This isn't my script, but instead a sort of spiritual sibling of my previous presentation.

History has shown us that humans are story-tellers. Even before the written word was invented, we took records in whatever ways we could--through cave-art and carvings--and as we developed language we made room in our lives for bards and troubadours, for folklore and mythology. We developed a long oral tradition that eventually became a written one. It has changed us, and defined us as a society.

But more than make writing easier, writing technology has changed us. "The medium is the message," as Marshall McLuhan would say. Typewriters made story-telling accessible to many, and computers even more so, giving even the more easily-distracted means to sit down and write in programs like FocusWriter, or the organized but always-on-the-move writers Scrivener. And where typewriters were less-then -portable, laptops can be taken very near everywhere. We have so many options concerning how we write now, it's truly amazing. There really is almost no excuse for not sitting your butt down and working on a story.

Furthermore, it's given us a community. While I feel out of place among most writers I know through genre or style differences, I can find any number of people with similar interests on Twitter or Tumblr or Facebook. We can create communities and give and receive encouragement, regardless of what friends think or family thinks or your cat thinks. There's always a kind word or helping hand. All this, through technology.

And even if I begrudge the computer at times, I'm so grateful I live in a time with all this for options. My goals seem so tangible, more tangible with the people I have met and the all the writing I can do.

Sorry, Muse: I'm taking credit for this one

Lately I've been hearing a lot about muse on Twitter. Perhaps it's the effects of NaNoWriMo (which I don't participate in), or the fall weather, or the fact everyone--writers especially--wants to believe in a little magic.

But writing isn't magic.

I consider myself a good writer. Not great, not wonderful. But not bad, and perhaps a bit above okay. I have some sense of style, and some sense of pacing. I get 'A's on papers from difficult professors once I have them looked over by an editor (#writetip number 1: fall in love with an editor, move in with that editor, use said editor to review your work for free). I do all this and I've never had a muse.

But I know what I want, and I've got my desire to write, to be a goddamn published author. I've just had that drive, that desire to put blood, sweat, and tears into everything I do (so long as I really like it... if I don't, that's another story). Sometimes this works, of course, and sometimes it doesn't. And sometimes I even get discouraged and don't write for days or weeks or months at a time, but like a girl silly in love I always come back. Always.

When I don't write, I work with my hands a lot. Knitting. Sewing. Bookbinding. Everything that requires time and effort to see results. There are no muses in work like this. I might get lost in making stitches, but it's always me and the project, nothing more. Writing is like that for me. One word after another. Not always fun, but always worth it, because I'm there, I'm making something new, achieving something tangible, albeit not as tangible as a hat or skirt. I can't reach out and touch it, but it's there to be read.

So if you don't have muse, don't be discouraged. And if you do, don't be so quick to give away the credit. Writing comes from you, one stitch, one word at a time, and that's something you should be proud of, whether it came easily in a dream or had to be ripped from your chest.