Expat Life & Writing

Two events from this week made me stop and think about what it means to be a writer.

The first was an email I received from an online magazine looking for freelance writers in Kazakhstan. The editor had googled "Freelance writer" and "Kazakhstan" and saw my name pop up a few times from stories I had written for GoNomad.com and Transitions Abroad. He emailed me to find out if I could cover a story for him. I thought back to the first few stories I published -- when the editors asked me to write a bio line, I struggled to figure out what to call myself. I was freelancing. I was writing. But was I a freelance writer? Really?

I used to always talk to Liam about wanting to be a writer. He would reply: you are. I think we all have these images about what it means to be a writer, and I know alot of us hesitate to call ourselves writers because we don't think we measure up; we're not there yet. We haven't published a novel, or a front page New York Times story. But there is something powerful in the idea that starting to identify yourself as what you want to be actually helps you get there.

Second, I came across this great article today about expat writers in Slate. Rolf Potts talks about how so many expat writers imagine that they have to live a certain life style before they are actually "writers." But in the end, it is the actual dedication to writing that makes you a writer, not the lifestyle. Click here for the story.