ENGLISH: Bloggers Calling Themselves "Writers" is Worse than Puberty

I understand that what I do for this blog, and for other blogs, is, in fact, writing. I even respect that good writing can be found on blogs, even when the writer in question does not have a physical counterpart on a Borders shelf somewhere.

What I don't respect is when people who make no money from their writing, since they only contribute to the sorts of places I do, and who have 9-5 jobs at which they're actively seeking advancement, and who are essentially hobbyists, or maybe op-ed contributors, call themselves "writers," as though it's both a description of their day job and of their moral fiber.

I mean, can't we concede that there's a difference between someone who takes an easel out on weekends and paints a watercolor of a nearby park and Cristo? Don't we draw a distinction between me in high school, on the stage of a local community center, and a ballerina? For god's sake, isn't a middle school production of "Oliver" something we ought to put on a different plane than Sir Ian McKellan's recent run as King Lear?

All I'm asking is for amateur artists of whatever stripe to signal, with a simple phrase - such as "in my spare time" or "for fun" or "my hobby" or "I am an AMATEUR" - that when they tell me "Oh, me? I'm a [insert creative pursuit here]," they're referring not to their career, or even something they'd bother with if they were tired, or something I should bend over backwards to try to work as a possible future networking connection; they're simply referring to something they dabble in with the same intensity that I knit.

Oddly, I don't feel compelled to have people define me by THAT hobby.

-Posted by Jilly, a woman who is TRYING to become a writer.