Image courtesy of Writing Humour

     Everyone has their own reasons for writing.  Some people use writing as a way to purge their minds of all the thoughts constantly running through their heads.  Some do it to fight for a cause.  And some are in it strictly for the money.

     The Ugly Side of Writing offers a look at the six types of writers and the famous authors that fall into these categories.  One person can fall into multiple categories.  I, myself, feel that I fall into “The Weird Recluse” category.  That’s not to say that I think I am a literary genius, but this is the one that I can actually identify with; locking myself away and writing in seclusion is how I work best.


     I envy “The Space Cadet”, the writer that can journey into a fantastical world and transport their readers there along with them.  My own writing is so grounded in reality that I find it difficult to create completely new worlds or languages.    How I would love to create something as wonderfully, magical as The Princess Bride or something out of this world like The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, but I just don’t think I have that in me.

   While it would be nice to be able to make a living doing something that I enjoy, I know that I could never be “The Greasy Palm”.  Despite the fact that I spend my days earning a living by working in finance, it is not something that motivates me to write.  I’m not a networker, people person or schmoozer.

     “The Ray of Sunshine”, seems to me, to be a mix of “The Space Cadet” and “The Greasy Palm”; a perfect balance of creativity and business.  This is the marketable writer, the one that can deliver not only on the writing, but on the business of writing.

     “The Angry Young Man/Woman” is passionate.  They find something they believe in and use the written word to fight for that belief.  Like me, their writing is based in reality.  The reason I don’t believe I fit into this category is that my writing is not trying to create awareness of a cause.  I am not trying to open anyone’s eyes to the world around them.  In fact, I try to do the opposite.  I try to offer a world that the reader can escape to, however non fantastical it may be.

     “The Bitter Failure” can likely start out in any of the other categories.  Writing takes perseverance.  There will be many more no’s than yeses along the way and not everyone that aspires to be an author can handle the rejection that comes with sending their work out into the world.  This kind of rejection can easily break a person’s spirit, causing them to become bitter and angry.

     What type of writer are you?