Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Catholic
Why Being a Writer Isn’t as Obvious as All That

Why Being a Writer Isn’t as Obvious as All That

Last updated on: December 27, 2014 at 10:18 am by Jennifer Fitz

Why Being a Writer Isn’t as Obvious as All That 2014-12-27T10:18:07-05:00 Jennifer Fitz

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Karen Kelly Boyce has a good piece up at the Catholic Writers Guild on cementing your identity as a writer. Her two instructions are:

1. Tell people you are a writer.

2. Treat your writing seriously. Make an office, use it.

For those of us transitioning from “I’d like to be a writer one day” to “I am a writer” there’s a vicious cycle of self-doubt: We don’t take ourselves seriously, so others don’t take us seriously, so we don’t take ourselves seriously . . ..

Karen’s instructions are just the thing for breaking the cycle.

But I have a very hard time taking her instructions.

Since I’m a writer, I’ll tell you about that now.

***

Let’s be clear: I am a writer. My first professional writing jobs were in graduate school, way back in 1995-1996. I actually wrote for a semi-living. Nothing glamorous — in-house newsletters and a pile of editing work — but it was real writing, for pay. That made me a writer.

It was confusing, of course, because I was going to school to study accounting. One doesn’t usually graduate from business school with “I am a writer” on the brain. I slapped on the accountant sticker and ran with it.

I did the accounting thing for a couple years, transitioned into the non-profit sector and then into the zero-profit sector. Slapped on the housewife sticker and then the stay-at-home-mom sticker and finally the homeschooling-mom sticker. I did some odds-and-ends accounting projects during that time, and so I didn’t let my accountant label fully wear off. I did some teaching stuff, and the teaching stuff involved writing things. The accountant stuff involved writing things. I was a still a writer, it turns out. I still didn’t put the writer sticker on.

***

When my children were babies, I had a mom’s forum I was very active on. I started feeling restless. I asked an internet friend to pray for me: I’m feeling like I should be doing something more and I don’t know what.

My husband and I went to a charismatic Mass, random event we just enjoyed going to. The speaker before Mass spoke about discerning small-v vocations. “What have you been doing for as long as you can remember?” he asked us. I told my husband: Well, I’ve been writing ever since I knew how. It’s the one thing I always do.

Used to drive my grandmother nuts.

***

Meanwhile, I heard about blogging. I started a little anonymous mom-blog just to practice writing for an audience.

Then I saw this link to the Catholic Writers Guild’s online writers conference. It was free and I could do it from home. I did it.

I went again the next year.

My writing picked up from there. Nothing big, just bits and pieces of this and that as I grew more serious.

By the following year, I was involved with the CWG as a volunteer. Next thing I knew, I was running the CWG Blog.

***

True story: I was hesitant to promote the CWG blog on my own personal blog, because I figured they probably didn’t want to be associated with me.

Yes. That’s right. I was the person who was handpicked to create and manage the CWG Blog, and I genuinely assumed that the Guild would rather I kept quiet about that fact. It just seemed like a reasonable thing for an organization to want.

I mean yeah, sure, they’d let me volunteer. But let’s not get carried away. An organization needs to keep up its standards, you know?

I still sorta feel that way. But I think they’re okay with me, because they let me be Vice President for a while.

***

One day, a friend of mine referred to me, in public, as a “blogger.”

I was mortified.

***

So here I am. I get paid to write stuff. I’ve published a book. I’ve had actual times in my life when people contacted me (not the other way around) and said, “Could I hire you to do this writing thing for pay?”

But when people ask me what I do, I still don’t automatically respond, “I’m a writer.” Also, I don’t have my own office.

***

Part of the reason is that writing is not the main thing I do. The main thing I do is raise my kids. It’s the thing I love to do, despite my utterly not-safe-for-Pinterest lifestyle. The thought of not writing is weird. Alien. The thought of not being able to organize my life around the rearing of my children makes me cry. Unspeakable.

***

I still have my accountant sticker, and I do enough teaching stuff that I have a teacher sticker I wear sometimes too. I don’t usually tell people about those, either, unless it comes up.

Usually I just tell people I’m a housewife. It’s subversive and it causes people to leave me alone, which at a party is nice, because you can never really have a conversation at a party anyway, too loud and mingley. Anyone who gets as far as inviting me for a cup of coffee, which is when you can have a conversation, already knows I’m writer by then.

***

They know by then because I have terrible handwriting. I have bad dreams sometimes about trying to write down my phone number and not succeeding. These dreams have a basis in real life. So when someone wants to get together for coffee I give them my business card, so that I don’t have to write down my number by hand. Thus even if they didn’t know before, by the time coffee comes around, they know.

***

The other reason I don’t mention writing much is that I write about religion. Not just any religion, but wacked-out I Think Catholicism Is True religion. Most people don’t want to read about that.

And then yet the other reason I don’t mention it is because I spend a lot of time in Catholic places. It goes better if I show up as just another random housewife lady, and not with my professional Catholic sticker on. People eventually find out what I do in my spare time, but they don’t find out until after they know me. It’s better that way.

***

I’m a very shy writer. When I was a kid, my family would always ask, “When can we see what you’re writing?”

I would cover my notebook and say, “When it’s finished.”

That’s still the answer.

***

I don’t have an office because the main thing I do is raise my kids. That’s my #1 job. There’s no spare bedroom, and it would take an awful lot of spare bedrooms before Jennifer’s Writing Space got to the head of the queue. I’m considered a priority member of the household because I have to share my bedroom with zero pets and only one human, and the human is the person I married.

I could go out and get an accounting job, and use the money to buy a giant house with lots of spare rooms. But I’d have to give up my day job raising my kids, which I love, and there wouldn’t be much writing time, either. Not a good strategy.

One day when I’m old, maybe enough children will move out that we’ll have a room that could be my writing space. Until then, I share office space with my five best friends. I’m good with that.

***

When I go to confession, 98% of my sins are in some manner writing-related.

***

But the office thing isn’t nothing. I know I’m a writer, because my husband bought me a lovely ultralight computer for my birthday this year. I have a teenager, which means I have a live-in babysitter, which means I can take a child to lessons or sports and leave the other ones home, and I get to sit alone in the car for an hour.

I use my little computer to write drafts, and then save them on dropbox and go edit and publish back home at the shared big office computer.

My happy hour, by which I mean the hour when I am very happy, is when I’m sitting in a parking lot all by myself, with no one bothering me, and I can write things.

The other people I live with cook dinner, and I get those writing hours. So I guess that makes me official.

Books

Writing Stuff

Previous Post

October 20, 2014

#Synod14 - Prostitute Nation and a Jar of Perfume

Next Post

October 23, 2014 Small Groups: The Best Most Dangerous Thing That Can Happen to Your Parish

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Books Catechesis Catholic Q&A Chastity Church Craziness Come See Me Talk Disability & Chronic Illness Economics Evangelization Facepalm Forgiveness Good Things History Homeschooling Human Rights It's All Catholic Listen to Me Survey Series Liturgical Living Marriage Modesty Not Satire. But almost. Rant-o-Rama Sacred Art & Music Satire South Carolina Spark Clutter Stick that Corner Suffering Thinking Topics Writing Stuff

Select a Month September 2026 July 2026 June 2026 January 2026 December 2025 September 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 November 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 May 2019 April 2019 February 2019 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Where was Jesus transfigured?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Mount Sinai Mount Carmel Mount Hermon Mount Tabor