How about this as a definition: if you make money as a writer, you’re a writer. The same could work for chef, carpenter, programmer, and so on. With a carpenter, you have to be licensed. With something like journalism, as long as someone is willing to hire you as a journalist, you’re a journalist. If someone is willing to pay you to be a writer, you’re a writer.
Until we live in a post-scarcity post-capitalist society, I think that definition will have to do.
A stupid hypercapitalist definition. I am a good distiller, metalworker, and a couple other things even though I don’t get paid for them. My wife is a radio host and writer -damned fine at both - but that’s not her job. No Olympic athlete is a “real” athlete by your definition. So on. So forth. Try again.
My partner is Scottish and heard me listening to this from the other room. He came to edify me about how British rule outlawed kilts so it was an act of defiance to go out without trousers. (He’s told me that a million times, but he’s just so passionate about his Scottishness, so I just pretend it’s the first time I hear any of his stories. True love and all that…)
It’s just a more expensive version of Kroger, right?
Well, JavaScript is a language so that actually counts IMO!
It is! Their code is just some other language, with rules and so forth. At least, that is how I explain it to annoyed programmers when I find a typo (what they call a ‘bug’ is really just a typo) in the code samples they send me to include in docs.
Incidentally, I think a writer is a writer if they write. It is irrelevant to me if they actually make money while doing so. I’m extremely lucky in that I make a great living with my writing, but it is technical in nature and certainly not glamorous or sexy.
And so what? Who is harmed by their “undeserved” claim of writer status?
More to the point, I’d say the “damage” they cause is dwarfed by the damage that the gatekeepers do to themselves by surrendering to their insecurities and trying to desperately defend their status.
Again, I’d disagree. I was a programmer for years before I was paid to do so. In fact, I find it quite sad when people feel they have to disclaim their amazing programming efforts (often in macros or non-programming tools) with “I’m not a programmer”. Who the hell gate-keeps the term “programmer”?
And again, why the need to protect the definition? Does desperately trying to fight for status benefit writers? Based on my observations of writers, I’d have to say no. Worrying about status can only detract from what motivates most writers - the love of writing and the desire to communicate.
Although there are no doubt corner cases where the two might blur, in my opinion (and it’s only an opinion), I’d say no.
And utter a prayer of thanks that that is so. (I couldn’t hack it as a writer, amateur or otherwise, but I can code half-decently.)
Writing in general is about communicating, while programming is about unambiguously instructing. Both are challenges, but my observation is that they (generally) use very different parts of the brain. With programming, you write to a single audience and most importantly, use unambiguous instructions. Figuring out what those instructions should be might be arduous, but as a programmer, you are certain what your instructions will accomplish.
Writing, not so much :-). Indeed, the ambiguity of language and the unknown nature of the audience are perhaps the primary challenges of writing.
Chuck Wendig had some tremendous insights a while back.
What is the harm, the damage? No real harm.
The only damage is to my impression of them when they tell me that they are a writer, and I subsequently learn that what that means is they are working on a novel and have never been published, or some such thing.
I would think more of them if they told me that they were working as a [whatever the hell they do] and were writing a novel. I think it’s cool to write. It’s less cool to present your aspirations as attained realities - pace Elizabeth Holmes
If you need stickers, I’ve got you.
If you write you’re a writer. Full stop.
If you make a living at it you’re a professional writer.
One of the greatest sorrows of programming and wrangling servers for a living is that I am using the reading and writing parts of my brain almost all the time. When I get off work it is almost impossible to read anything longer than a blog post let alone a novel.
Instruction is a form of communication. But what do I know.
You know, you remind me of the other writing I do: documentation. Lately I have been writing in Confluence almost as much as I have been writing in the code base itself. Making sure the API is properly documented, making sure internal release notes are understandable, things like that.
Oh, and I ought to mention that one of my favourite books is Angus Kroll’s If Hemingway Wrote JavaScript.
I’m going to pick up that book. One thing I definitely need is another book to add to the pile on the nightstand.
And then there’s this.
Interesting! Do you think it general mental exhaustion or reading/writing in particular?
Agreed, of course, but there are many forms of communication that I would not consider writing.
I find what exhausts the writer-brain to be fascinating. I thought the differences between coding and writing enough to be worth pointing out. (And now that I think about, I’m implicitly assuming fiction writing.)
I’m sorry, but I consider that a little unfair.
Did you feel my post was disrespectful to you?
If so, my apologies. If you would be willing to point out how I did so, I would be most grateful, as I was attempting only to support a differing opinion without disrespecting the original post.
No idea what kroger is. Google not much help. (A hat shape? For hats that are made from tweed?)
It is possible you may be a heathen. Woad, much? 
Possibly an incredibly obscure/localised joke about this:
On July 9, 2013, Kroger announced its acquisition of the 212 stores of Charlotte-based Harris Teeter in a deal valued at $2.5 billion and assumed $100 million in the company’s outstanding debt.
If so, well played…
Thanks! @L0ki for the win. It’s interesting how extensively Google modifies search results by location, so @anothernewbbaccount couldn’t get results on Kroger. It was a good store, and they really burned us here in NC by closing all these stores and replacing them with the more expensive Harris Teeter.
duckduckgo for the win…
