Brutal honesty: I don't think I'm ready to write a novel. I need more time to study the shapes of novels so I can recognize an idea for a novel when it comes. Meanwhile, ideas for stories and poems keep coming, and I need to keep my name out there. So no novel yet.
To date, I've had a few stories published online and a few poems published in print. Should I consider myself unpublished until the still-distant day my novel comes out?
Reading Bryon Quertermous's interview with Dave White prompted this question. Bryon writes, "Seriously. I'm an unpublished schmuck and I want to interview other unpublished schmucks..."
It's true neither Bryon nor Dave has published a novel, but each has published short works. To me, that's published.
In the end, I believe a writer earns and maintains the title by writing, continuing to work at it, not falling out of practice. A writer who aims to be published for a living can be called a professional writer.
Some may say I define these terms as such because I haven't published a novel myself, but the act of writing is the same before and after publication: come up with an idea, draft it, flesh it out, trim the fat, submit. Any writer not engaged in this process isn't writing. And a writer who doesn't write can't be published, or go by the title writer.
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