What's in a name?

Recently I have been considering what encompasses a ‘writer’. By what criteria are we able to add this to a person’s title? In context:

“Here is my mate Teo, he dabbles in black and white photography, is partial to a bucket of frozen margarita mix. Oh and he is a writer”

Now there are the obvious indicators which I will assume are proportionate to commercial success, publications, fans and financial security. Someone who can put pen to paper for a living would be what most people qualify as a writer.

But what about all of those insanely talented people who were unable to relentlessly pursue their love in life or find it viable enough to express themselves, their imagination or penchant for strategically stringing words together day in day out?

You could then go to the other extreme and treat the word ‘write’ quite literally. My niece can now spell her name as well her little brother’s and those of her parents. Is she now a writer? In my opinion yes and much better than a lot of what I read on a daily basis.

Alternatively, could our best screen plays, poems, and essays be replaced by a cleverly scripted thesaurus program that was able to construct a range of adjectives, nouns and verbs into a sentence… a chapter ….a novel? OK, possibly a bit extreme. But maybe a million monkeys......hmmmm.

Its seems there is quite a classic structure for a lot of funded blogs and opinion columns. Simply pose one of the many ‘big questions’ to your readers, then cite and link back to a few ‘recent studies’ and ask the readers for their opinion and or related experience after sharing your own. This is not to dismiss the wonderfully unique and insightful few that have enriched the on line community. Admittedly there are two driving factors behind this post, namely;

1. A handful of people I know who, are so gifted when it comes to writing, I selfishly wish they would take the time to scribe more as I very much enjoy reading their stuff as I believe would many others 
2. I want to write more. I think I need to but I am so apprehensive about my ability as well as the fact that I have ABSOLUTELY no idea what it is I actually want to write about. 

I have visions of people reading my stuff going: 'yeah well I can kinda see what she is trying to say but the questions remains....why did she bother?'

Anywho, what I do realise is that when I look back after time on things I have written, is that I really enjoy them. Once I stop being so critical and sifting through each sentence with a fine tooth comb I gain perspective and appreciate the sentiment of what's there on the page.

So I will now trust the process. I sometimes don't write anything as I prematurely resign myself to the fact that I won't be able to finish anything I start.

Well. My way around that now is to post in snippets. As each mini epiphany comes, it shall be posted. No more excuses.

Namaste