{"id":998,"date":"2012-02-14T12:10:26","date_gmt":"2012-02-14T12:10:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/williamgreeves.com\/?p=998"},"modified":"2012-02-15T18:45:40","modified_gmt":"2012-02-15T18:45:40","slug":"are-you-a-writer-or-an-author","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greeverwilliams.com\/?p=998","title":{"rendered":"Are You a Writer or An Author?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/p>\n

Just to clarify, this is Faulkner, not Greever<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Recently someone asked me if I was an author<\/strong><\/em> or a writer<\/strong><\/em>. I immediately said “writer<\/strong>,” to which he asked, “what’s the difference?”<\/p>\n

And that one, I couldn’t answer as quickly. What is the difference?<\/p>\n

The first definition of Writer<\/strong><\/em> on Dictionary.com<\/a> – a\u00a0person\u00a0engaged\u00a0in\u00a0writing\u00a0\u00a0books,\u00a0articles,\u00a0stories,\u00a0etc., especially\u00a0as\u00a0an\u00a0occupation\u00a0or\u00a0profession;\u00a0an\u00a0author\u00a0or journalist.<\/em><\/p>\n

Yep, that’s me!<\/p>\n

The first definition of Author<\/strong><\/em> on Dictionary.com<\/a> – a\u00a0person\u00a0who\u00a0writes\u00a0a\u00a0novel,\u00a0poem,\u00a0essay,\u00a0etc.;\u00a0the composer\u00a0of\u00a0a\u00a0literary\u00a0work,\u00a0as\u00a0distinguished\u00a0from\u00a0a compiler,\u00a0translator,\u00a0editor,\u00a0or\u00a0copyist.<\/em><\/p>\n

Yep, that’s me!<\/p>\n

Wait, what? The differences are so subtle that the terms can be (and regularly are) interchanged. Personally, I am sticking with writer<\/strong><\/em>. \u00a0It is more actionable (engaged in writing<\/em>) and it has longevity (as an occupation or profession<\/em>). Author<\/strong><\/em> seems to be acceptable for a singular work (a person who writes a…<\/em>) and it seems to be a label of role clarification rather than a occupation or a passion.<\/p>\n

Besides, my image of author<\/strong><\/em> would require me to wear a smoking jacket and go back and re-read (and fully appreciate) Faulkner’s collected works<\/a>. And no, I am in no way bashing Faulkner. He was a genius that will always live way above my pay grade. But I am hungry to get in and get my hands dirty…there is too much writing<\/strong><\/em> to be done!<\/p>\n

How about you? Do you lean one way or the other? Do you go so far as to correct people if they get it wrong?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently someone asked me if I was an author or a writer. I immediately said “writer,” to which he asked, “what’s the difference?” And that one, I couldn’t answer as quickly. What is the difference? The first definition of Writer on Dictionary.com – a\u00a0person\u00a0engaged\u00a0in\u00a0writing\u00a0\u00a0books,\u00a0articles,\u00a0stories,\u00a0etc., especially\u00a0as\u00a0an\u00a0occupation\u00a0or\u00a0profession;\u00a0an\u00a0author\u00a0or journalist. Yep, that’s me! The first definition of Author on […]<\/p>\n

Continue reading →<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":1180,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[30,526,528,530,529,527],"class_list":["post-998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-amwriting","tag-author","tag-faulkner","tag-occupation","tag-profession","tag-smoking-jacket","tag-writer"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/greeverwilliams.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/faulkner.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2dNJ0-g6","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greeverwilliams.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greeverwilliams.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greeverwilliams.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greeverwilliams.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greeverwilliams.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=998"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/greeverwilliams.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/998\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1183,"href":"https:\/\/greeverwilliams.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/998\/revisions\/1183"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greeverwilliams.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greeverwilliams.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greeverwilliams.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greeverwilliams.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}