I think Charlie is onto something here, though. There's a definite
image associated with "being a writer", and "being a writer" often
has very little to do with the actual act of writing. It mostly
seems to involve angst and sitting around in public attempting to
look creative. I'm not sure what it accomplishes for the people who
do it, but hey, whatever gets you through the night.
I think the problem is that the public does not perceive writing to
be a business or occupation: they perceive it as an art form. And
artists are apparently allowed to be moody, sulky, tempramental,
nasty, unprofessional, childish brats in our society. So those who
are busy "being a writer" will emulate this behaviour, in order to
appear more writerly and thus impress those around them with how
artsy they are.
Writers, on the other hand, tend more towards polite and
professional, because writers understand how much work goes into
this gig. And maybe that's the way it should be left. After all, we
need some way to seperate the men from the boys... ;)
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