4 reactions to being described as a writer..

Two people who do not know each other included the word 'writer' in their description of me for work related things.

I jumped and said Gawd no no.. that is the last thing I want to be described. I not sure why though so rambling through some thoughts.



1. Who, me?
Who is a good writer/bad writer?  I like to be perfect and good in everything I do and well, writing is one of those things which either good or bad - I guess it depends on who is reading.  There is a vulnerability in writing and exposing yourself.

2.  The power thing..
There is great power in writing and I like when I hear people say they read books and articles which 'changed their lives'.

Way back in 1997, the first article I had ever written on Domestic Violence was published in Andaiye's column in the Stabroek News. I should have kept Andaiye's editorial red inked comments on the drafts.   The Monday after the article was published, I received a call from Help & Shelter that  a woman wanted to see me. She had a cut out of the article with my name and insisted she wanted to talk to the author. She had read it and thought the article was about her life and she had decided to do something about her abusive relationship. In my anxiety not to hold on to that kind of power, and being scared of the responsibility that people could actually read what you write and do something, I forgot what the woman looked like , what clothes she wore, and the details of her story.

I remember her hands holding the cut out newspaper article in the room as she talked and I remember watching her hands rather than listening too closely (not good for a counsellor to do).

The power is seductive, complicated. It is nice to think that the writing can bring change, but then .. if you get hooked on writing for the power to change, you have to work through the disappointment when the change might not happen or the anger when you are writing about the same things 10, 15 years after. And there are times when people expect you to write about things and when you don't feel like it or are too busy with the money making work, you get a feeling people think you are inconsistent etc.


3.  Integrity
 I think the word writer implies integrity. There are many times I have thought of writing 'fiction' - fiction which is really a disguised truth because the truth is too complicated to tell but needs telling. Fiction-writing requires work in character and story development but in non-fiction, so much characters exist whose stories and thoughts have the potential to destroy some of the stereotypes of Guyanese especially.  But while there are things easy to write about, there are things which I dare not write about and I often wonder about those things.


4. Is not me alone..
I learned that the ability to write well is an unstated requirement of many professions and occupations. We had to write user manuals and training manuals for software. We had to learn to write memos which were polite and courteous while also challenging to positions of authority.
We had to learn to write management papers to guide decisions on IT purchases. Most professions require clear communication and it would be a mistake for any of us who work to think that we do not have to write (well) as part of that work. 

I tried a 'ting' with a report recently which would have been dry without a case story. The case story generated some discussions which delayed part of the acceptance of the report and I felt that I should have stuck to the template if only to hasten the acceptance of the report.



This blog took longer to write than I intended. Writing about writing is as difficult as writing about anything else.