Poll: A Question for All Prospective Writers

[Durgiun]

Personally, I don't think anyone can become a professional writer. To do that you need skill, patience, wisdom, knowledge and connections.

You don't think anyone can?

Surely if that were true, there would be no professional writers...

Pretty much. Not everyone can become a professional writer like Stephen King, Harlan Ellison, Drew Karpyshyn etc.

You don't see every member of fanfiction.net getting book deals and living off of them.

Ah, but you said anyone, not everyone.

Not trying to be the guy who grammar nazis on a thread about "writers", but I was genuinely confused.

To remark upon your actual point, I'd say that's where every prospective author wants to end up, but I for one have several backup plans I'd be perfectly happy with.

Well, maybe the private security thing would be a bit of a drag, but I hear the money's good.

Oh, my mistake. I honestly don't know what I was thinking back then.

It's always good to have backup plans.

 

[Kriptonite]

I've written a few short stories, just because I had some ideas. I consider myself to be a writer. However, I consider people that write essays for class to be writers as well, as long as they take their work seriously/care about what they write down.
When people tell me they're writers or aspiring writers, I ask to see some of their work. If they can produce something solid and good (being grammatically correct with correct spelling and such) then, in my mind, they're a writer.
I have a pretty loose definition of a writer though, so perhaps I'm not the best person to ask[footnote]Says this as if you were asking me directly[/footnote]