A couple of years ago, I gave my founding Inkwell members friendship bracelets for Christmas. They said “Author,” and without meaning to, I launched an emotional conversation about whether that title had been earned.

“In my family, skills don’t count until you have degrees in them,” one member said. Another worried that she couldn’t claim the title of “Author” until she’d been published.

Both of them were deep into their works-in-progress. Both of them were committed to their writing, even if they couldn’t get to the pages every single day. Both of them had every right to wear those bracelets.

Because if you write, you’re a writer.

Full stop.

Now, there are people out there who will say being an author has different requirements. You can be a writer without being an author, kind of like you can be a lawyer without being an attorney.

Sure, but here’s the way I see it:

When you’re dedicated to your writing and your aspirations of publishing—when you’re working toward it as much as you can in your current season of life, you are absolutely allowed to identify yourself as an author.

No further qualifications required.

But so many of us carry this limiting belief that we need to earn the title.

By writing more often.

Or writing better.

Or writing more seriously.

Or writing with fewer Cheerios stuck to us at any given moment.

So let me hold your hand while you say this:

You don’t have to prove anything. Your identity as author is already yours.

(And even if you don’t believe it yet, fake it till you make it, right? Practicing calling yourself an author will help you get there.)

The Myth of the “Real Writer”

The idea that there’s some official threshold—a word count, a publishing milestone, a specific routine—is a myth.

There is no committee, no licensing exam, no badge.

If you call yourself an author and you do any of the following…

write in tiny pockets
write inconsistently
write secretly
write slowly
write in seasons
write because you can’t not

…you are an author.

Motherhood Doesn’t Disqualify You

Sometimes, after becoming a parent, we feel like our writing life shrinks.

Mine sure did.

Or like we’re somehow “doing it wrong” because we can’t give writing what we used to.

But motherhood didn’t strip you of your title.

In fact, I’d argue it strengthened your claim. This new identity gave you new textures, new emotions, new perspectives, and new depth.

Even if you’re not getting pen to paper very often right now, you’re becoming a stronger, more complex writer just by paying attention to the way you’re living.

You Don’t Need to Earn Your Title. You Just Need to Claim It.

Claiming your identity as an author doesn’t require grand gestures or ceremonies. It doesn’t even require a friendship bracelet (though that can help!).

All it requires is that you say to yourself, perhaps quietly at first but louder with every repetition, “I am an author.”

Your Writing Matters Because YOU Matter

Not because of the outcomes or finished products, but because your writing connects you to yourself.

If you’d like some support in affirming (or reaffirming) your identity as an author—including skills development, accountability, encouragement, and positive peer pressure—I’d love to invite you to join The Inkwell. We’re a group of authors regularly supporting each other in honing both craft and confidence, whatever else life throws at us.