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Are You a “Legitimate” Writer?
You may hear people use words like “legitimate” when speaking of art, including writing. And, as an editor and freelance writer, I mostly hear it used when speaking of literature, especially as an indie author.
Some people could be using the term to intentionally present themselves as elitist (maybe it just makes them feel better about whatever hard things they are struggling with in their own writing career or personal life), but others seem to use it without any sort of malice. They appear to me to have (somewhere in the back of their mind, I guess, since they don’t spell it out) a set of criteria for what they believe “legitimate” is when it comes to writing. However, I’m not really sure what people mean when they use the term in a phrase like “legitimate author” or “legitimate book.” I can’t define what an “illegitimate” piece of writing is, so I certainly couldn’t tell you what a “legitimate” one looks like. Same goes for other forms of artistic expression like sculpting (what does an illegitimate statue look like?) or musical composition (what’s a legitimate score sound like?).
Who’s In Charge Here?
Who gets to make the call regarding what writing is legitimate and what writing isn’t? I would think it would be the reader, but I normally hear it when…
