Most writers I know, of which I know myself best, are still occasionally or permanently haunted by the myth of the “Published Book”. We sometimes tend not to see ourselves as “real” writers and instead give us names such as “wannabe” writer unless we have published a book. And it’s often not any book, but the book, the one we picture ourselves selling into thousands of copies. And if we’re really dreamy, also see ourselves signing the book deal. With a certain pen, not a cheap one, one that is precious to us. We type a lot, but we still fantasize about the touch of the pen on the paper when we sing those deals, the first one for the book, the second one for the movie.

Why we fear to call ourselves writers escapes me. Maybe we think that once we do so, we need to live up to the name of our profession. And I believe we are not really sure how to achieve that. What we get from not considering ourselves “real” writers? We look down on ourselves, we drop books because we believe them not to be very good, we see this part of what we are as a hobby, a pass-time and not the real deal.

Let me tell you a few things about myself. I have been writing all my life: essays, novels, short stories, blog posts, articles, press releases, white papers, short ebooks, company profiles, bios, newsletters, you name it. Not all of them finished, not all of them paid either. But I write hundreds of words every day, in one form or another. You could definitely say I am at least a part-time writer. I am a PR specialists and a blog editor and manager also.

I have also tested my writing skills. Other than the business writing part and the blogging. My essays and partially written novels have been read over the year by many people: teachers, family, friends, other writers, people I don’t really know. They all liked them, more than I did at times. They all encouraged me to continue, keep at it, finish my work in progress and get it published. Except for my business writing and my blog posts, oh, yeah, and my business ebook on how to use Twitter, I have always abandoned my writing projects, finished or not. Why? I simply thought they were not good enough. I thought I was not a “real” writer. But I was. And maybe part of my projects was good enough. Not all of it, most surely, but part of my many written pages.

Right now I am trying to embrace what I am. Sometimes I tend to say I am not a full writer because that’s not all that I do. But no one actually does only one thing! We are all multifaceted and that’s OK. I remind myself that I do write everyday. I always write with passion, most times with a purpose and some times I get paid for it. That, to my mind, makes me a writer. A “real” writer. Nothing less, nothing more.