You know, this little technicality has been bugging me for a while. We people who make a living by creating web content, we never actually write or touch a pen to create content. How come we call ourselves writers, when we aren't writers in the traditional sense of the word. We only type content in Microsoft Word, Wordpress or whatever. Should we invent a new term to describe us internet content creators? Or is there nothing technically wrong with calling ourselves writers?
The word writing isn't limited to the touching of a writing instrument and making motions that create symbols, which can be decoded. Last I checked anyway.
Interesting point of view that reminds me an article that provides a definition for every type of writing activity people can be engaged with, article available here, http://writing-world.com/basics/types.shtml
I just think of writers as people who write things, whether it be on paper or computer, it's still the same idea.
By your standards, most authors wouldn't be "writers" anymore either. A computer-based writer is still writing - putting thoughts into a readable, tangible form - just as a graphic designer is as much an artist as someone who paints by hand.
Should we be called typists then? LOL Seriously though, the term writing has gone beyond simply pushing pens over a piece of paper. Don't lose sleep over technicalities, mate.
Even with the traditional definition, we are still considered writers. In one of many entries, Merriam Websters defines "write" as "to form (as characters or symbols) on a surface with an instrument." Microsoft Word is my surface and the keyboard is my instrument. But, being a writer isn't defined by the medium. If I dictated to a typist, is she now the writer? What if I used voice recognition software? So no, there's nothing technically wrong with calling ourselves writers. After all, writer is just a synonym for author.
Hmmm....keyboardists? LOL We are writers. Does not matter if we write with a pen, quill or a qwerty thingamajig. We are.
In the same way that a musician writes songs by making up the words and playing the music on his instrument, web content writers make up their articles and play them on their instrument, which is a keyboard and the Internet. Neither ever has to put a pen to paper. As long as the result is in some way recorded or performed for others to share the idea, the end product is considered something written. So,...maybe we are musicians! LOL
I think we need to look at the kind of things we write. If we are just 'typing' keyword driven content with strict constraints, then we are not doing more than what a normal keyboardist would do. If we are providing intellectually stimulating content, be it SEOd or not, we deserve to be called writers. I guess that completes the "definition"... focus on INTELLECTUaLLY STIMULATING CONTENT!!
I think that brings out an interesting point. Someone who merely types words out without any commitment or interest just to make a quick buck isn't a writer. He's just a keyboardist.
This is very nicely put. We all write everyday, yet so few of us are really writers... I've always perceived the act of writing as a symphony of words with layered content, not just stuff mechanically put out there, for some SEO sake or whatever.
I actually disagree. Something doesn't need to be "intellectually stimulating" or a "symphony of words with layered content" to be coming from someone who is technically a "writer." If it has to be intellectually stimulating, does that mean comedy writers aren't really "writers?" What about writers who cater to a beginner audience in a niche? Beginner content is rarely "intellectually stimulating" across most niches. As for the "symphony of words" comment, how do you account for folks like technical writers (where it's about clarity, not creativity or "layered content")? Or what about business writers who focus on things like proposals? Not really "layered content" there, but proposal writers are certainly real "writers" (and probably much better paid than most content-oriented writers). Or what about medical writers who focus entirely on getting information out there, or those writing up results of studies? Writing can do any number of things (inform, educate, entertain, persuade, etc.), and can come in any number of styles from any number of types of "writers." A writer who specializes in SEO content is no less a "writer" than someone who writes greeting cards, screenplays, news stories, white papers, poetry, press releases, or novels. "Writer" is nothing more than a generic umbrella term covering a wide variety of narrower disciplines focused on using language to do one of those things I mentioned previously, and putting it into a tangible form. Some types of writers will certainly be more creative, artistic, etc. while others are going to be more technical or even routine. That doesn't make any type of writer better than, or more of a "writer" than, any other type in the grand scheme of things.
All correct, there are many types of business writers. I write for business purposes myself. I was talking about artistic writers, who, for me, are into writing only for the music of their words and not for the money they bring in. Ultimately, this is the type of writer that I want to be.