This may seem like an obvious title for my first blog post but creating this site was, for me, a very clear commitment to something I have been working towards for years. It can take a long time to call yourself a writer, I think. Everyone is still learning, everyone faces the terror of the blank page when you forget everything you ever knew about writing and everyone waits for the moment where they feel legitimate as an artist.
It’s taken me a long time to realise that the only person who can really give you that seal of approval is yourself. If you write, you are a writer and it’s really as simple as that. If you’re still on the fence, I can recommend reading Sara Benicasa’s book Real Artists Have Day Jobs or The Art of Asking by Amanda Palmer to help clarify your thoughts on what it means to be an artist and how you can build belief in yourself.
This blog, and in fact this whole site, is an attempt to document my life as a writer, to state loud and clear who I am and what I do. I have a lifelong love of words and that, rather than any personal or political agenda, drives my writing. Of course I have views on political issues and emotional responses to my life that appear in my work but for me, writing comes less from a burning desire to share those opinions and feelings and more because I love to play with words. I love the look of them on the page, the sound they make, the way they work together.
Stephen King said that books are a portable kind of magic; each word, then, is an ingredient for a spell. You’ll see under each highlighted publication I’ve explained a little of my inspiration and motivation for writing each piece. Over time, I’m hoping this site will become something like a book of spells, reminding me where poems come from and helping me when I lose my way. I hope that the site can help you, too, as a reader or a writer. It’s nice to meet you. My name is Zoe and I am a writer.