I’m A Writer?

Writing Perceptions are a weird thing. My perception of myself may be quite different from the way you perceive me. For example, I’ve never really thought of myself as a writer. As a reader of my weblog, you may be scratching your head and thinking that I’m crazy, but it’s true – I’ve never thought of myself as a writer.

In college I kind of minored in English. I took short story and poetry classes, but everything I wrote for those classes were assignments. I was told to write something and I did. Later, when I entered the business world, I ran several marketing departments. Being in marketing, I was expected to generate copy. I wrote annual reports, press releases and tons of flyers and newsletters, but still, all of these were required of my job and I perceived them as just another task in my job. When I started KCPUG and then later InterPUG and NPUG, I wrote my fair share of articles, reviews, and meeting announcements, but once again I perceived these as tasks.

Throughout all of my writing career, I’ve never perceived myself as “a writer.” Then I started a weblog. I laugh just typing that sentence. LOL! As of this writing, I’ve written over 115,000 words in 8 months. None of these entries have been motivated by work, or by demand, they have simply been ideas, or stories that I’ve wanted to share with anyone that felt like taking the time to read them. So now I’m looking at myself with different eyes. I perceive myself differently. I’m actually starting to consider myself a “writer.”

This is a new and interesting perspective because in changing how I perceive myself and what I do, changes what I think I can do. For example, I’m now considering looking at other writing opportunities. Could I write a column for a local magazine or newspaper? What about a book? I’ll probably begin with doing more articles for NPUG or InterPUG, but who knows where this new road could take me.

For friends that I’ve talked to about this subject, it seems like a natural progression, but for me it seems like a big leap. So I pose this question to you. What things do you do that you take for granted or dismiss? How is your perception of yourself limiting the possibilities that are available to you? Something that may seem like nothing other than a simple task to you could be a doorway to a whole new you.