AUTHOR

1 a: one that originates or creates : source authors> authors> author of this crime> b capitalized : god
2: the writer of a literary work (as a book)

Recently, J and I separately described me as a stay-at-home-mom. Shortly after I did this (in a work context, no less), I thought to myself - wait a minute, I work - I'm working right now! When J did it, I didn't correct him, but it was interesting to hear him describe me that way. As it happened, J described me as a SAHM at a dinner where I didn't know the woman sitting beside me very well. Over the course of the evening, she and I started chatting and found out we are both writers. She's at work on a novel that her daughter is editing along the way and I'm trying slowly but surely to explore a fiction character. As we talked, we touched briefly on what constitutes being a writer.

Am I a writer? Am I an author? What is the difference between the two? A song we sing at church describes God as the Author of Salvation, which always prompts me to think about what, if anything, I am author of. If God writes to save, why do I write?

I write for many reasons: because I enjoy it, in order to communicate my thoughts, to stretch myself, to leave something behind, because I feel compelled to do so.

Another question I've spent some time asking myself is what I have to say as a writer. So many people write, for such varied reasons, that I sometimes wonder whether I have anything unique to say or anything worthwhile to say. But when I look back at the reasons I write, the first one is that I write because I enjoy it. That in and of itself should be enough reason to keep doing it.

I'm not sure I'll really consider myself an author until (if ever) I have something published. In the meantime, I'm going to settle for being "one that originates or creates."