Personally, I think they basically mean the same thing. I definitely don't think it's an insult to call a published author a "writer." I suppose in some situations it could be misleading, like if in whatever context the person thought you were saying you were published...but that can be cleared up and it works the same for author or writer.
Yes, I agree, to both points. As nell65 also pointed out above, the two words often have separate meanings in different contexts, and hence the confusion. But when you think about it simply as 'a person who writes' (which was the discussion here –the OP was of the opinion that an author is one who wants attention, gets published and all that, and a writer is someone who writes for themselves), really, does it have any difference?
Well so-and-so is a good storyteller but she's not really a writer
I've seen that being used about JKR quite a number of times. *is a fangirl*
Sometimes I think people just really want some sort of objective marker of quality to feel secure
Yes, exactly. Like jaybee65 said in her comment below, writing helps them derive a sort of identity, and saying "I'm an Author" sounds a lot better than "I'm just a writer".
and that doesn't exist outside the writing itself.
And that's something many people will not admit. As you said, being published is not the ultimate judge of creativity – unfortunately, that seems to be the accepted standard these days.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2004-10-15 11:23 am (UTC)Personally, I think they basically mean the same thing. I definitely don't think it's an insult to call a published author a "writer." I suppose in some situations it could be misleading, like if in whatever context the person thought you were saying you were published...but that can be cleared up and it works the same for author or writer.
Yes, I agree, to both points. As
Well so-and-so is a good storyteller but she's not really a writer
I've seen that being used about JKR quite a number of times. *is a fangirl*
Sometimes I think people just really want some sort of objective marker of quality to feel secure
Yes, exactly. Like
and that doesn't exist outside the writing itself.
And that's something many people will not admit. As you said, being published is not the ultimate judge of creativity – unfortunately, that seems to be the accepted standard these days.
Swatkat