labels
What Do You Call Your Writerly Acquaintances?
We writers are connected in many ways. Some have pretty straightforward labels.
The Writer-Friend. Not that they need to be set aside from friends in general, but they meet extra qualifications. They know the lingo like “querying” and “form rejection” and the accompanying angst.
The CP (Critique Partner). Like the Writer-Friend squared, they don’t just wish us well in the trenches—they help us get the right gear, find the best paths.
The Author-with-a-Capital-A. The rock stars of the writing world. The multi-published, best-selling authors. Those people the rest of us can’t quite bring ourselves to equate as being in the same profession we’re trying to weasel our way into.
Then there are other connections, a little more nuanced, and that’s where the labels get a little head-scratching for me. Most specifically, writers with an agent or publishing imprint in common. I often see such writers referred to as agency-sisters, for instance.
But what about the guys? My agent represents several male writers (and illustrators!), but I’ve never seen anyone say anything like, “Yeah, Jimmy’s my agency-brother.”
Is it because as females, we’re more likely to establish and define relationships in this way? For guys, are we just all writers and that’s enough?
Does it matter? Probably not. But this is the way my brain works.
I guess I’ll just stick with the labels for myself … a happy AQCer and member of the Literaticult.
Speak up:
Comments Off on What Do You Call Your Writerly Acquaintances?Call It What It Is … So What Is It?
I am sure I’ve referred to myself as an aspiring writer before. Maybe even frequently. Chuck Wendig says I shouldn’t call myself that. (Good article on the other end of that link, but fair warning—coarse language therein as well.) I understand his point. You either write or you don’t. If you do, you’re a writer; if you don’t, you’re not. Very Yoda.
With respect to Mr. Wendig, however, sometimes that’s the clearest, most concise label for the type of writer I’m referring to. There are many types, and I have friends among all of them. Published writers, writers with publishing contracts who’ve not yet been published (would that be pre-published?), agented writers, self-published and/or indie writers.
Then there’s me (and my friends rowing along in the same boat).
I suppose I could call myself an aspiring-to-be-published writer. Accurate, but kind of a mouthful. If I wanted to be really accurate about my status at this very moment, I should call myself an aspiring-to-be-agented writer. That’s even more awkward.
Sometimes (maybe even most of the time), it’s fine to say “writers,” all-inclusive. Then there are times when I need to specify a more specific group, and if I say “aspiring writers,” most people will know what I mean.
It reminds me of a discussion I had with a colleague at school a few years ago. She’d been in a discussion where some teachers stated vehemently that we shouldn’t refer to some students as hard-of-hearing. It’s a school for the deaf, call them all deaf (or Deaf, more accurately), and leave it at that.
Again, that’s all well and good much of the time, but there are occasions when I need to refer to a particular subset of students. I joked with my friend that I’d call them Students Having Access To Sound Adequate For Acquiring Spoken English—the SHATSAFASEs. (Try saying that aloud. Yeah.)
The hard-of-hearing label has pretty much stuck. Sometimes I call them “Talkers.” We all know it isn’t meant to put them above or below the deaf kids—it just means speaking to them isn’t a waste of breath.
So, my apologies. I’m going to continue to use “aspiring writer” when necessary for clarity.
Have you run into this type of “labelling” issue before? (Does anyone seriously use the term “vertically challenged”?)