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Iwas thinking about skill development today (as I often do considering my professional life) and was thinking at which point a person "becomes" something, when can they be labelled as something holding that skill or that faculty? When can someone say "I am a __________" ? How many runs does it take before someone can classify themselves as a runner - is it a time frame, a frequency, a proficiency or is it when they get paid for it?

When would I be able to class myself a writer? I have not only written every day for over three years, I have also *published* nearly every day. No, I don't write novels, but I guess I do write essays - and I have written something like 25x 300-page novels worth of words in this time - likely more than the average professional writer. 

![garden 1942020 1 of 15.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/tarazkp/spF3c15p-garden2019-4-202020120of201-5.jpg) 

While not every one of the 3500+ posts I have written are masterpieces, I think that if someone were to trawl through the stack, they would probably find some relatively good pieces of writing and perhaps with a little editing, very good. I am a writer, not an editor. 

> Am I a writer?

The question is open to interpretation and classification, but if it depends on getting paid something for what is produced, I guess that I am a writer. I don't think quality really comes into play at all, as there were professional script writers who wrote the dialogue for the *Twilight* movies, and they call themselves writers. 

Perhaps it is not about pay, frequency or proficiency at all - maybe it is about how others perceive the position - do people see me as a writer of some kind? I know that when I go to work, very few people even know that I write and they categorize me as a trainer of some kind, depending on where they know me from. And this is the issue with the social classification, as the definition depends on what they *think they know,* but it is a limited view. 

It is kind of like seeing somewhat familiar people from work unexpectedly at the gym, out of context it may be hard to even recognize them. The lives we lead are very much situational and context based, and we build our assumptions, our judgments, upon the narrative that fits the situation. Only occasionally do we pay enough attention to be surprised. 

I don't know if there is a bright line that we cross in order to fall into some kind of boxed class, but I also do not think that it is up to us to decide without evidence. A person could say that they are a writer after their first sentence, perhaps before, but that doesn't make it so and if they truly believe that - they may be more delusional than not. But I do not think that writing every day necessarily makes one a writer either, perhaps for example, someone who keeps a journal of their daily existence.

Maybe the writer is someone who writes for an audience, even if that audience never sees what was written, like the closet artist with an attic full of paintings, only discovered after their passing from this world. This would make it about intention, something that looks to produce something to be consumed, something with direction. However, it could be that there is no target at all and the definition doesn't come from the result, but the process taken. 

Like the runner who researches and adjust diet to improve performance, the golfer who spends hours in the gym strengthening and harmonizing the muscles used to drive the ball, or the pianist that practices their scales hours a day. Maybe what makes someone something is the curiosity and motivation to keep improving and exploring the field, keep challenging themselves to discover a new side to what they do, an edge over who they were yesterday. 

What I do think though is that someone who classes themselves as something, has to be able to perform adequately and consistently under varying conditions, often those that are less than ideal. This is likely the requirement for anyone to be considered good at anything - if someone is only good when conditions are in their favor, there is no telling if it is just mere luck, that they can do something and when the stars align, it works well. It is when the metaphorical wind is whipping the rain and the ground is covered in mud, that you will  see who can perform and who cannot - who can withstand the elements and keep doing what they do.

I wonder if there will ever come a time I will see myself as a writer and if there is, I wonder if there will ever come a point where I will say, *I was a writer,* once upon a time...

We can be many things in this life - there are many more we *cannot* be.

Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]

![PoSh.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/tarazkp/xnIfNUYC-PoSh.png)


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