When I was a frazzle-haired eight-year-old with buck teeth and knobby knees I spent hours of my life sitting in the safe arms of the backyard apple tree munching on sour green fruit and scribbling in my journal.

I wrote magnificent stories about imaginary creatures, moralistic fables about runaway kitty-cats and complaints about my older sister, who forced me to make piles of peanut butter sandwiches for her and her friends whenever she babysat.

Somehow, the act of writing channelled my childish thoughts and dreams into a private library no-one ever saw and now, decades later, one no-one can even imagine any more. Not even me.

The words that kept me company through indolent summer mornings and frosty fall Saturdays rolled along through the filter of dictionary entries and thesaurus pages, languages learned and degrees achieved. There have been definitions to surprise me and spellings to sometimes confound me.

Becoming a Freelance Writer

I am a writer. I earn my living and support my family with my ability to string words together in a filament of glistening word-pearls that hang in circlets of sentences that somehow create value in this world.

I am just a figurehead, however.

For behind the prow of my definition of me surges a dolphinesque party of others who are writers too. I meet you at networking dinners and baseball games, university functions and high school reunions. Disguised as teachers and bank tellers, security guards, lawyers and businesspeople, you light up with the joy of a shared secret when I tell you what I do for a living.

“I’m a writer, too,” you breathe.

You aren’t saying you’ve been published in the Globe and Mail or are revising yet another website homepage.

Rather there is something in your heart that loves the act of searching for a word – THE word – that belongs in a tricky sentence or stubbornly unfinished novel. Like me, you have a fondness for language and a devotion to meaning and like me you’ve probably spent late nights or early mornings hunched over your next exciting writing project. Cursed or blessed we just can’t help ourselves.

I’m lucky to have channeled my talents into a life that says “Writer” on the outside as well as on the inside but for those of you who have not made that leap, I offer this request: keep writing. Our world needs people who care about words and meaning, definitions and spelling. It needs grammar tyrants and style experts, creative word artists and closet poets. Your devotion to writing raises the banner of literacy over our whole civilization and sets a higher standard of communication than the generations coming behind were perhaps hoping to have to hit.

In these days of Twitter feeds and texting, you are not just a Closet Writer, you, also, are a custodian of the written word.

Do you write too? My favourite aspect of writing is the precision of fitting words together in novel ways to create writing that flows beautifully. What do you like best? I invite you to share in the comments section below.

Want to learn more about how I can help you along your writing continuum? Contact me today or check out my book coaching services.