An Amateur

Are you new to writing? Do you consider yourself an amateur? When someone asks yourself what you do, do you start with "I'm a writer..." then add the word "but..."

What's so bad about being an amateur?



The word seems like such a putdown. Yet the word is rooted in the Latin verb amare, "to love."



At the turn of the twentieth century, when the Olympics were revived by English gentlemen, they insisted on amateur status for the contestants to keep the money-grubbing lower classes from competing and destroying the high moral purpose of the games. Yet today professional has come to mean "someone who takes his work seriously" while an amateur is considered a dilettante.

We Grit for the Oyster authors have a motto: "Do not despise these new beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin" (Zechariah 4:10).

So don't apologize for being new to this writing gig. Take it and run with it!