I am a writer - 1st version

What is it that defines if a person is or is not a writer? What is the difference between a normal person and a writer? Who deserves to be called that way?

A couple of weeks ago I started reading a book that discussed precisely these questions. This reading created a lot of different things in me, mixed feelings. As the author said, and I have been able to see for myself, many avid readers have, at least at one point in their lives, the desire to write. And it is not only a wish for fame and recognition, but an actual need to create and give life to the thoughts that flood their heads most of the time. Some, in the form of fictional stories, others with more academic contents. But the end is the same: sharing everything they have with others.

The question the author asked, what most of us who have gone through one or more of these phases have asked ourselves, is: when does one person stop being a "wannabe" and becomes a writer? There are many answers to that question. Some say you become a writer when you have published something (that is to say, once you have written something worth publishing). I disagree. I believe the moment you become a writer is when you write that final stop in whatever it is you wanted to create, whether it is a novel, an essay, or a short story, and you share it with someone else. That is the moment you expose yourself to others and you show them what is really inside you. That is one of the bravest things a person could do. It is a great risk, as our creation might be greatly critizised, and surviving it is sometimes a hard task in itself. But I have done it. I have taken the risk. I have survived, and I am still willing to create. That is why I truly believe I am a writer.