March: The Month I Became a Writer

March is the month that I became a writer.

Some people might argue with that statement, and say I’ve been a writer for years. I have journals full of writing, notebooks full of poems, and Hilroy scribblers (remember those?) full of stories from when I was a child. I’ve written essays and lab reports, and wrote plenty of news articles when I took a full year journalism course. But I stand by it.

March is the month I became a writer.

In March, I wrote more than I’ve likely ever written before in my life. In just 31 days, I wrote 11 blog posts consisting of over 10 000 words. My undergraduate thesis didn’t even have 10 000 words. Nor was it written in just 31 days.

But this past month has taught me that it’s not just word count that makes someone a writer.

My journals full of writing, notebooks full of poems, and Hilroy scribblers full of stories have always just been for me. Even the essays, lab reports, and news articles have typically only been read by one other person- whoever was giving me a mark. But being a writer is about more than just writing.

Being a writer is about letting other people read your work. It’s about letting other people in to your writing. About being prepared for people to comment on the things you say, criticize the things you write, disagree with your opinions, or hate your style of writing.

There’s still a difference, however, between letting people in, and people actually choosing to walk through that door. And it’s that difference that’s defined March as the month I became a writer.

In March, I became a pundit, providing election coverage for Dalhousie’s student union elections. I wrote a number of blog post covering a number of topics. These were read, and commented on by both people I knew, and people I’d never even heard of. They were shared on social networks. Some people criticized and attacked me for the things I said. Others supported me, and felt like I was voicing their opinions. And yet others started asking who was starting an anti-elections petition after I wrote a post outlining a large number of flaws with the election. That’s the power of the written word.

I wrote a post on this blog about criticizing student government, and was astounded by the number of people who read it. And then I wrote another post on this blog, “For the Love, or For the Resume.” Literally thousands of people read it, people I didn’t even know were sharing it with their social networks, and it was all so unexpected.

It’s terrifying to discover that I have a voice other people are willing to listen to. To discover that people are willing, even wanting, to share the things I write and publish. It puts into question, to a greater degree then ever before, what it is I’m willing to say and stand behind on the internet. It puts into question what messages I’m trying to send, what words I want to convey. It makes me really think about the topics and ideas I want to be writing about, and whether I even want to keep writing at all.

But I will keep writing. I have to.

March is the month I became a writer.

And I can’t abandon that now.

What happened to all my other goals during the month of March, you may ask? Well, I wrote a lot, and wrote for Punditry. And I sacrificed pretty much everything else for that. But I’m happy with that choice- and April is a new month!