This is How I Know I'm a Writer (by Michael Clark) | Life of the Mind ...

Editor?s Note: This post by Michael Clark is the first in a series that will feature former students of mine who have become professional writers. I asked each of them to focus on the topic, ?Why I Write.??

Dr. Michael Clark has had an inspiring journey as a writer. He has worked professionally as a journalist, a high school English teacher, and now as a college professor. I first met him at Azusa Pacific University, where he became editor-in-chief of the student newspaper while I was faculty advisor. He had extraordinary energy and drive. Once he graduated and became a newspaper reporter, I thought his career was set for life. He was good at it, and he could have stayed with that work for as long as he wanted to. He married another of my talented former students, Heather (Murphy) Clark, an Honors student who became a teacher and is now a part-time college instructor. Michael felt the urge to try teaching, so he completed the education and other steps necessary to move into that career. Once again, I thought he was set. Then he felt the urge to earn a Ph.D. in creative writing and pursue fiction writing. He applied to universities across the country and was accepted at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. It took courage for Michael and Heather to move their young family a couple thousand miles away to pursue this dream, but they did it, and once Michael finished his Ph.D., he was hired as a writing professor at Point Loma Nazarene University, where he now teaches.?

I?m a writer. This is a reality I have finally accepted. I do not have a large number of publications. I may not be very good at it. I can?t really tell. But I am a writer nonetheless (if for no other reason than I use the word nonetheless unreservedly).

How do I know I?m a writer? Simple ? it?s what I do. Two full novels written (unsold), a third well underway (40,000 words and counting), and more than 20 short stories (mostly on my hard drive) that I would show other people attest to the simple fact that writing is more than my hobby. My body of work is solid and continues to grow, whether or not anymore ever sees the light of day. This is how I know I?m a writer.

I have a stack of rejection letters, like every other writer I know. They?re from journals, publishers, and agents across the country. I have a spreadsheet that keeps track of all the times I?ve been rejected and accepted. According to this ledger, I?m deeply in the red. This is how I know I?m a writer.

When I hear stories of famous authors who struggled to find a publisher before they were finally granted a book, I am unabashedly soothed by them. The fact that Elie Wiesel couldn?t sell Night for years gives me hope, not that I will ever be Elie Wiesel, but that I can continue to try. This is how I know I?m a writer.

I simultaneously love and hate with the way I say things. ?I want the ability to revise my conversations as they happen and fully expect that every time I try to put things into words the result will be fantastic. It is a frustrating way to live. This is how I know I?m a writer.

Every aspect of the world around me has the potential to be told. To live and breathe not just in the moment I witness it, but on the page and for much longer than it would have otherwise. Thus, I am alternately interested in everything and overwhelmed to the point of shutting out those closest to me. This is how I know I?m a writer.

I often forget to eat, but I never go long without coffee. This is how I know I?m a writer.

I live in San Diego, three miles from the ocean, but I spend more time in a chair wrestling with the next character, the next scene, the next story than I do in the water. This is how I know I?m a writer.

People tell me that fiction is a dying form and it makes me nervous to the point of feeling like a poet. This is how I know I?m a writer.

I only find mathematics understandable if it is part of a narrative with tension and great character development. When I studied math, I often critiqued the lazy form of word problems. This is how I know I?m a writer.

If you are my friend, part of you might just end up in a story. If you?re my close friend, I might just kill you in print. This is how I know I?m a writer.

I write because it is comparable to breathing. When I do it, it is so natural I don?t think about the fact that I?m doing it. When I don?t do it, it?s pretty much all I can think about and I feel like I?m holding my breath. This is how I know I?m a writer.

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Michael Dean Clark is an author of fiction and nonfiction as well as a professor of writing at Point Loma Nazarene University. His work, most of which is set in the San Diego area, has appeared in Fast Forward, Relief (where he later became the fiction editor), and Coach?s Midnight Diner among other publications. He is currently at work on his third novel-length manuscript and will move on to number four as soon as he is done. He?s sort of obsessive that way. When he?s not writing, he is likely herding one of his three children around or speaking to his wife sarcastically because sarcasm his love language.

Source: http://josephbentz.com/blog/publishing/this-is-how-i-know-im-a-writer-by-michael-clark/

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