Becoming a Writer

Anyone can publish these days but how do we know when we have written something worthwhile? Where is our audience and why would this imagined audience want to read what we have written? Does it matter? Shall we continue writing regardless of financial success, or recognition? What does it mean to be a writer, to follow the path of admired writers, and to lead a sustainable writing life when text is easily fed into AI and few readers can tell the difference?

This book will attempt to answer these questions. It is my hope that both students, experienced writers and mentors will find my suggestions useful. They are well tested; I've been a working writer and writing mentor for many years. I have witnessed first-hand the advent of AI and grappled with its contextual and ethical challenges. We are at the beginning of our adjustment to the AI juggernaut and must remain alert, thoughtful, and supple. As I write in 2026, I am not persuaded that AI is beneficial to a writer's thought process or growth as a writer. I am particularly concerned about young, aspiring writers who may be tempted to take shortcuts. Evidence is slowly accumulating about the inherent danger of this powerful new technology on young minds, and many school districts are slowly introducing guardrails. For the adult student, there remains an imperative to train neural pathways unaccustomed, perhaps, to creative endeavor. Therefore, I have chosen to use "becoming" in the title.

Most of us who identify as writers, and are published, were not born writers: we learned the craft, practiced and revised until, one day, our manuscripts reached what I call "fruition." They were ready for submission somewhere-to an agent, a publishing house, a self-publishing company, a blog, a newspaper or a magazine, online or print. And we continue and are continuing in the present continuous tense-to learn and improve.