The moment I finally called myself a writer

When I started writing, I had all sorts of anxiety. Who was I, pretending to be a writer? How could I possibly call myself one when I hadn’t even written a real book, when I hadn’t been published or paid for my work? As I began to pursue my craft, I learned something important. (In fact, I’m still learning it, and if the pros I’m learning from are

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So I started saying I was a writer. I put it on my Facebook page. Included it in email signatures. Everywhere I could, I wrote the word “writer” beside my name. It was kind of ridiculous, but something crazy happened as a result of this campaign. It actually worked. As I started making these public proclamations of identity, I started believing the

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Given the above, you might be surprised to learn that until about a year ago I didn’t primarily think of myself as a writer. I thought of myself as a founder who liked to write. About a year ago, I decided to flip that: I started to think of myself as a writer who also builds things.

The one practice I kept was writing. It made the cut because I can’t deny how many good things in my life have come as a result of my putting words out into the world. It also felt like a respite: one area where I wasn’t skeptical of my identity. I’m at my most courageous on the page because interrogating my feelings with words feels justified and

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I had spent years helping other people find their voices. I wasn’t sure I’d recognize my own voice when it came. And truth is, I didn’t. I needed people to tell me when I hit my sweet spot. When I struck a nerve. I needed help. I needed feedback. When I started writing every day without excuse, I didn’t know if my material was resonating with anyon

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I now think of myself as a writer. I didn't realize it on my own though. It was after Sula was published; I was talking to my editor (Robert Gottlieb of Knopf) one day, and he said, "This is what you are going to be when you grow up. This is it." I said, "A writer?" He said, "That's right. Of all those other little things you do, this is it. This i... See more