Who is a writer ?

Lately, I have seen pages and publishing houses reject works by people with words like “Is this even literature ? Or how could you call yourself a writer if all you have written is this ?”

They not only reject the given content but also question the person's complete ability to express themselves.

And it sparked this unanswerable question in my mind, when can you call yourself a writer ?

What makes a writer ? Is the ability to string beautiful sentences enough to call yourself a writer ? Can you call yourself a writer, just because you can find words enough to express your musings ? Are you only a writer when you have a wonderful readership or when the world accepts your works with words of appraisal ?

Having asked that question, are you still a writer if you have but one reader ? Are you still a writer if you works are never able to leave the confines of your diary ? Would you call a person a writer if all they can write about is that one emotion that overpowers every other aspect of their life ? When do you call someone a writer ?

Now, before people start questioning me. I am not a writer, but I have friends who are. I don't know anything about writing. I am just a reader but being a reader I can tell you what I want from my kind of writer.

For me, you are writer if I can connect to you any form. Even that friend who can write words to motivate me in the darkest days of my life, the writer of that short, unnoticed storybook that I found at the back of the bookstore, the author of those few lines that I read on a facebook wall which made me follow my passion, the girl whose post about self love made me overcome my insecurities, they are all writers to me.

They may not be the best by far. They may not be reaching the best audience but they are still beautiful pieces because, hey, they reached my heart.

So, I guess what I want to say is, we are all writers. Because we can all feel. It was the need to express basic human emotions that led to the art of writing. We all start by writing about things like love, heartbreak, grief, depression, elation, mirth, anger, betrayal and what not.

I know many brilliant authors out there would blatantly disagree with this. You might even say that I am demeaning the beautiful art of story writing by calling such non literary, talentless people writers. And I am sorry for doing that to you.

But, have you stopped believing in the magic that words create ? Don't you remember how they heal and hurt, etch and erase, build you up or break you down ? Have you forgotten how profoundly your words affect people ? If no, then please don't use them so carelessly that you end up killing the dreamer inside a budding writer.