Hollywood sex abuse allegations - rush to judgement?

Perhaps.  To me there are “writers” (defined by the fact that they have written something) and then there are “authors” who are people who have had something they have written published by a bona fide publishing house. Yeah, I might be old-fashioned about this because I know how hard it is to get published.  And I have known writers as well, and most of them aspire to be published - but that is a gigantic leap and involves a writer doing a huge amount of work (and laying everything they have written on the line).  
So I do (maybe only in my own mind) have that demarcation and I will never lump published authors in with fanfic writers.  It is relatively easy to click a button that says “publish” when compared to submitting your manuscript to an editor and then waiting (and waiting and waiting) only to be told “no thanks” and then doing rewrites and then going through the process all over again (and again and again).  I really respect writers who take that leap because it is probably the hardest thing a writer can do (giving your work over to someone else who then holds your fate in their hands), but once this leap is made, they are truly an “author” IMO.  You have to earn that title in m view.  Just interchanging the terms cheapens the blood, sweat and tears that every author goes through to get a book (or article or whatever) published.  It’s a personal bugaboo with me.

:-))

That’s fine.  🙂

That’s the dictionary definition.  I am talking my personal feelings about the word and I was explaining why I feel that way. Being an author is so much more to me than just the dictionary definition. It is very personal to me because of my experiences.

It’s like calling someone a Nurse if they give you an aspirin and tuck you into bed when you are ill. Yes, by the strick definition anyone can “nurse” someone back to health, but I don’t think a qualified nurse would appreciate it much if everyone who did that insisted that they be known as a “Nurse”.  

I can see that you think I am being fussy about this and you are probably correct - but that’s just because I feel that being an “author” is something that has to be earned and used with a certain amount of discretion.  But it is just the way I am - I recognise that this isn’t something that everyone agrees with.

:-))

I recently had a conversation about this with a friend of mine. I was telling her about a couple Jeopardy contestants who had described themselves as "writers". When Alex Trebek asked them what they write, they said a blog. I remember thinking "Just because you write stuff, it doesn't make you a writer". Most people are bad writers, and doing a lot of it doesn't make you any better at it. Just like with any other skill, it either comes naturally or it has to be learned. But that's ok - we shouldn't have to wait until we're great at something before doing it, otherwise we'd never do very much of anything.

I once learned to play a bit of the trumpet, and I loved it and practiced every day for almost a year, but it would be insulting to actual musicians if I called myself a musician, too. I'll still keep playing, though!

I suppose it's the difference between a writer/artist/musician and a "professional" writer/artist/musician. Or if someone asks "what do you do?" they mean for a living, not a hobby. The person is still doing those things, just not as a career. It's like the story that when you ask kindergartners, "who here can dance? Paint? Sing?" every hand goes up but in a few short years, children no longer consider themselves talented enough to claim they can do these things. When of course, they always can, everyone can! They just may not be the best at it, which is okay!