Today's blog is not so much a blog as it is a question. Over the past year or so, I've read many articles on how bloggers aren't considered 'real' writers. How anyone can throw up a blog using a template and start putting words out into the internety world.
I've read that bloggers write, but not really. They aren't necessarily paid. They didn't go to school to learn their craft. So how can they legitimately call themselves writers?
And in a way, I understand it. I mean, I wouldn't paint a water colour picture at my kitchen table and call myself an artist. Nor would I write a limerick and call myself a poet.
But I'm also one of those bloggers....one who originally, five years ago, put up a blog using a template and started to write. For free. With no intention of actually turning my blog into a business but purely for the sake of writing. I also didn't go to school to learn how to write. I was just writing. Or, I guess, blogging since to many I wasn't considered a real writer.
Two years ago I was at a media event. It was a one hour bus ride to and from the event and on the way back, I closed my eyes to relax and started listening to a conversation across from me. The woman was a journalist who worked for a large newspaper. She said in very clear terms that bloggers weren't writers. Bloggers undermined real writing. I never said a word but it left me wondering who and what I was in terms of writing.
I pondered that question for a long time. It left me feeling unbalanced and slightly insecure. Does everyone feel this way? What was I? Am I legitimate? I was finally able to answer that question for myself - something I think we all have to do.
So I'd like to know what you think? What do you consider yourself - a writer or a blogger? And is there a difference? If so, what makes that difference? Is it getting paid to write? Your education? Or something else.
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