Are Bloggers writers?
Hello friends,
When most people hear the word “writer”, they likely conjure up the image of someone who writes books, not someone who has a blog and publishes articles to it on a daily or weekly basis.
But can you have a blog and be classed as a writer if the articles you write are published straight onto the internet rather than into a book or newspaper? Am I a Blogger or a Writer?
The Cambridge English Dictionary defines a Blogger as someone who writes a blog, which is a record of someone’s ideas, opinions, or experiences put on the internet for others to read. A Writer is a person who has written something or who writes in a particular way.
ID: A graphic with a blue/green background. with a picture of two typewriters, a pen and a pair of glasses. In the middle are the words “Am I a Writer?”
A person who blogs writes whatever they want to share, whether on a set topic or simply how their day has been. But they are writing something even if that something is going on the internet instead of in a book to be published. So putting the two definitions above together, a Blogger can indeed be a Writer and a Writer can be a Blogger. I guess it’s more of a question of which you view yourself as.
“Am I a Blogger or a Writer?”
From an early age I loved books and although a slow writer, I enjoyed just sitting and writing. I loved doing those “write about your weekend” type assignments most children do in Primary School and enjoyed sharing them on Monday morning. When I was around 9 years old, a friend and I would put together a “newspaper” of sorts, where we’d write reviews on films or tv shows we’d seen or about anything else we wanted. I mainly wrote, using my electronic typewriter {one of the best gifts I’d ever had from my parents!} and my friend, being better at art than myself, would draw the pictures to go with the little articles. No one ever saw them, they were just something that we would do when we were together and I really wish I still had them.
I feel it was from doing that that the idea of one day being a writer came to me and specifically, I felt I wanted to do something with newspapers ~ become a Journalist as, although it would be amazing to write a book, I liked {still do} the idea of writing articles about a certain topic. However, life and choices took me in a different direction and while I have no regrets for the choices I have made, I still would, at times, love to be a Journalist and work for a newspaper writing articles each week. While people’s job choices and loves aren’t genetic, the fact that one of my great grandad’s was an award winning Journalist and his daughter, my great aunt also wrote for a newspaper, at times makes me feel like writing is in my blood.
ID: A graphic with a light blue background and the words: “Writer {noun} A person who has written something or who writes in a particular way” in black on it.
When I was in my early 20’s I heard about something called Blogging and specifically about a site created by Google called Blogger. Once I delved into what it was about, I immediately signed up and set up my very first blog called “Geek @ Work”. The appeal of having a tiny corner of the internet to write whatever I wanted was wonderful!
When I started I definitely classed myself as a Blogger, I wrote mainly about my day to day life. My job, things I enjoyed doing and on the odd occasion, my health as it was beginning to fail me around that time. My blog was basically my online diary, just not as personal as a proper diary. However, over the many years I have been blogging and especially within the last 7 years, I feel the topics I write about and focus on has changed as I’ve gotten older and more experienced.
Personally, while I am technically classed as a Blogger, I tend to view myself more as a Writer. This isn’t because I don’t like being called a Blogger, I’m proud to be a Blogger, but when it comes to living with chronic illness, language and terminology is so important. Like many others, illness has taken a lot from me, which means that I am unable to do many things. But although unconventional, through having my website and my Blog, I have found a way to do something that I’ve always wanted to do. So for me, thinking of myself as a Writer is so important mentally. As having something you are able to do when chronically ill really does help give you some measure of purpose and being.
Although it does take a lot of effort and energy, {I wrote an article all about Blogging with M.E} for a few mornings each week, I sit with my laptop, put together an article on a chosen topic, take photos or make a graphic to go with the piece I’ve written and feel like I’m doing exactly what I’ve always wanted to do.
If you have a blog, do you class yourself as a Blogger or a Writer?
Stay Safe.
L x
