by Sherrie Bourg Carter

Created on: February 07, 2010

I've been receiving a lot of emails lately from women who identify with some of my articles. Their comments tend to be either that I'm living their dream of being a writer, or that their lifelong dream is to be a writer, which started me thinking ... what exactly is a writer? The answer is actually quite simple ... until, of course, we complicate it, but let's stick with simple for now.

Simply (and, in my opinion, correctly) defined, a writer is someone who writes. So for those of you who dream of being a writer because it's your passion, it's what you love to do, then it's hard to imagine that you haven't already accomplished your dream. If you love to write, then chances are you have written in some way, shape, or form all of your life, and therefore, by definition, you are a writer. But of course, that's the simple definition, and as we humans are prone to do, we often complicate simple things.

For example, many writers have asked me, "How can I call myself a writer if I've never had anything published?" Others have commented, "Every time I submit something to an agent or publisher, it always gets rejected." Good points ... but my message to them is that when they ask and say those things, they’ve changed what they’re defining.

Here's what I mean. When a writer starts talking about publishing and agents and getting paid for their writing, they’re no longer talking about writing. They’re talking about the business of writing. And those are two very different things with two very different definitions. 

Would you define a dog and a wolf exactly the same way because they're similar? I would hope not. They're very different animals, and your risk of being attacked by one is much higher than by the other. Well, the same holds true for being a writer and being in the business of writing. They are very different animals, and it's important not to confuse the two simply because they look a lot alike. If you do, you're taking a very big chance of being eaten by a wolf that you've mistaken for a dog. 

As someone who has spent time with both of these animals for many years and am still alive to tell about it, here's my advice to avoid being eaten by a wolf.

1) Writing is a very personal thing. If you write about what you love, then the rest will fall in place. If you

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