The question is, are you any of the three, or areyou all three, or maybe your just one or
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two. Recently a friend wrote a post blog post about the world of blogging and writing. My question to him was, does being a blogger automatically make you writer, does being a writer mean you are an author? His response was a good one and pretty much to the point, which I have no argument with, however I feel the topic is worthy of further discussion.
Let me start with my own history, I am a blogger first, and foremost, personally I do not believe that makes me a writer, I have over a thousand blogs in my portfolio of writing, but I don’t think by any stretch of the imagination that I am a writer, and certainly not an author. In my humble opinion I believe that with each step comes a certain amount of responsibility to ones audience, as well the craft or art if you will.
Lets take a look at all three individually:
Bloggers, how many are there now, just about every body and their brother claims to be a blogger these days, sitting down and putting pen to paper so to speak does in fact make one a blogger, whether that you makes one a good blogger, or a well read blogger is another story. I think blogging is the first stage in the “writing” world, it is where most today get there taste for putting thoughts into words. I have read some awesome blogs by wonderful writers, however I have read some poorly written blogs as well. Good or bad it doesn’t change the fact that one is blogging.
Writer:
I think being a writer is a whole next step in the process, in time a good blogger becomes a writer simply by the act of continuing to express thoughts through words. As with most things, when one continues they want to, and seek out ways to improve what they are doing. Blogging is no different. Again, being a writer does not default you into a good writer, there are some great writers putting out some awesome material and then there are writers that will just never hone the craft.
Lastly, lets talk about being an Author:
When talking about being an author it takes on a whole different context. Author infers that your work has been published, whether it be an article in a local mag, newspaper, or a whole book, being published simply puts you in a different space than the other two categories. Those that have been through the process of getting ones work published knows the ordeal that encompasses.
So where do you place yourself, what are your thoughts about whether you are a blogger, writer, or author? I think wherever you place yourself in the mix, you should keep going, keep learning, look for that voice inside you that you are working to get out. If it wasn’t there you wouldn’t be writing in the first place. Go with it…
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GettysburgGerry 
Great post. I have read many blogs about blogging and what that makes the writer of such blog…yadda, yadda, yadda. This makes perfect sense!
Thanks for stopping by, sometimes it gets so uppity, I agree
I guess I would consider myself a blogger, maybe eventually a writer!
I would have to say the same about myself. Not a “writer” as of yet,
I guess in this case I am a Writer with the heart of a Author. I have a few articles and even a small E-book published but nothing large enough in context ( to me anyway ) to be considered a “Author”.
Nice read, Following.
Thanks for the trackback. Great questions and thoughts going on here. I’m thinking that I am not an author (yet). But, I have had articles published. Perhaps that’s because any pieces that carried my byline were published ions ago when I was in college. My professional years have been spent writing mostly for business purposes — ad copy, news releases, white papers, case studies, proposals, etc. Creative writing (i.e. short stories, novels, essays, etc.) is the next area I am interested in gaining experience.
Love the “yet”. Have you connected with other authors on Writers chat on Twitter.Great learning and connecting with published and those yet to be published
I don’t know that we need to cleave these out semantically. While most of my posts tend to be introspective and ancillarily related to social media & new media, I don’t know that I could readily shift into long-form expository writing. Maybe the better question is whether I *want* to. I happily make my living telling others’ stories.
The purpose of my blog is to track my progress as I write my first novel. However, I’ve never written a blog before this one and never had any works published, thus I’m reluctant to place myself into any of the categories you have suggested! As you mentioned, there is a tendency to overuse terms like ‘writer’ and ‘blogger’ these days, and writing does not necessarily improve with years. The categories have become so wide that I’m just opting to keep working at it until I feel comfortable and accomplished enough to call myself any of the three. It certainly serves as good motivation.
Pingback: Note 363 – What’s your label: Blogger, Writer or Author? « My writing challenge
Thanks for this post – great points. I stumbled upon it whilst I was in the middle of writing about this topic. I hope you don’t mind, but I quoted your post in mine. Thank you, Sandra