RE: Shanna

I am a writer. I am?

I suppose we all have the capacity to be a writer. Don’t we? After all, it’s not like singing, where I often have dreams of auditioning for American Idol and making it to Hollywood (!...?) to my shock, and then horror. That is because I am of the distinct impression that I’m not a very good singer. Even when I belt out Toni Braxton in my shower (you know, where the acoustics are the most flattering) and as much as I try and stretch my voice, my own vanity has to admit that it doesn’t sound fantastic. On a good note though (pun intended), I wouldn’t categorize my singing disability as tone-deafness. For instance, I have the capability to blend my voice very nicely with a chorus, or with the radio in my car. So, I do have that going for my singing aspirations. But my point is this. You can’t fake a good singing voice. That is, unless you are a commercially promoted, bubble gum pop tween with a team of synthesizers on hand to fake out your undiscerning audience.

Writing, however, is another story (there again with the puns.) Sure, there are those people who simply have a talent for writing. You have probably paid or thought about paying them at one point to produce a paper for you. But in my opinion, even the layman could slop something on a paper and eventually form a well written essay/story/book/blog given enough rounds of editing. Now, if grammar wasn’t a strong suit, I could see how this may be painstaking and time consuming, but still achievable for even the most helpless among us.

So, the real question is, where do you draw the line? When might you consider yourself a writer? Because I think I have established that we are all writers if we so choose to be one. Perhaps will and ability are intermingled here. In my case, I have always had a dread for writing, so I simply didn’t have the will. I had a problem with focusing my random thoughts into one congruent paper/story. Obviously, I still have that same problem. But somewhere along the way, I realized that I had the ability to rein myself in, and was actually able produce good writing. That, paired with my knack for grammar and love for words, translated into my writing for pleasure. I guess that leaves me now with the will and ability to write. So, I’ll bite the bullet...

I am a writer.