When can you say that you're a writer?
I went to a doctor's appointment this week. The physician's assistant, making small talk, asked me what I do for fun. I hesitated for a moment and said, "Well... I write."
"Really? What do you write?"
Another hesitation. "Young adult fantasy."
"Oh, wow! Where were you when I was growing up?!"
She asked me how I had gotten into it and I told her about National Novel Writing Month, and how I had three partial novels. I didn't bring up my published short stories, but she also didn't ask me what I had published. And when I say that, what I mean is that she did not seek out my publishing credits to determine if I'm "really" a writer.
As we were having the conversation, especially the early part if it, I wondered if I had "the right" to call myself a writer. Sure, I've published four stories. Sure, I have three novels partly written. But is that enough? I don't write every day (even though EVERY successful writer says you must). While I have been published, those publications have been by literary magazines with relatively small circulations. It's not like people know who I am; it's not like I'm famous.
But I recall reading recently about the Fraud Affect. It's when you feel like you don't belong to a certain group, you're not good enough for a certain honor, even though your peers DO feel that you qualify.
I remember reading an article by Neil Gaiman about this. He recounts a story of how he was at an event, as a guest speaker I think, and was standing in the back of the theatre with "another Neil." They got to chatting about how it still felt weird to Neil Gaiman to be invited places to speak, how he still doesn't quite believe his own celebrity. The other Neil said he understood, that often when speaking in public would think, "but I didn't do anything special - I just went where the air force sent me." In his story, Neil Gaiman counters this with, "but you went to the moon!" - revealing that "the other Neil" was Neil Armstrong.
So I guess it's OK, that maybe this is just something I have to get used to. I am a writer. I write. I have published stories. I am working on novels. Therefore I can tell people, "I am a writer."