How Many Writers do you Know?

John Guillen55 Comments

I just read the headline of some online article that writing is a dying craft. Or something of the sort. And now I’m writing this post.

See, I know there are way too many writers out there for any one person to be aware of. I couldn’t tell you if there are ten million writers in America or half of one million. It’s impossible to know. And I don’t want to know. But I think it is interesting to think of how many I know.

Let me think about this for a second. I won’t include any of you from WordPress because at the end of the day I’m not sure I really “know” any of you. Maybe you feel differently. Anyway, I think the number of writers I know who are not known to me because of WordPress sits at one. Ha. I bet you thought it would be none. But it’s one. A co-worker of mine (I think) is currently working on a book. He’s told me all about it countless times. He’s told me about his characters, his chapter titles (cause he uses them), and his process. But that’s it. There’s no one else.

But I know many of y’all have writing groups and book clubs full of writers and all kinds of things that have enabled you to know and meet writers on some kind of regular basis. I just haven’t had the same opportunities as of yet. But I also don’t claim to be representative of the population at large.

So tell me how many writers you know. And I’ll let you decide whether or not you want to include people from the World Wide Web. Also, do you think writing is a dying art? I don’t. I think it’s evolving like everything else.

55 thoughts on “How Many Writers do you Know?”

  1. I don’t think it’s a dying art at all – pretty much everyone I’ve stumbled across on WP is a writer or wants to be. I know I’m searching for those kind of people, but still.

    Not including people on WP, I know:

    Four writers from my writer’s group (includes two poets).
    One published writer of spaced-out counter-culture fiction.
    One hoping-to-be-playwright who presently works as a copy-writer.
    One fantasy author.
    One story book writer and illustrator.
    And a partridge in a pear tree 🙂

    I sought out the writing group, but the others were friends who I later discovered were wannabe writers like me – we seemed to have naturally clumped together somehow and it’s great if you need to whine or compare notes about plots/ self-publishing or whatever.
    I highly recommend it!

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  2. I don’t believe writing is a dying craft at all. I think it’s merely moved mediums. It’s heavily internet based – blogs, forums, indie publishing – as opposed to say what people assume to be writing as being picked up by a huge company. In real life, I’d say I know quite a handful of writers, especially with me still being in school. Plus two of my family members are getting published. If I factor in the internet, the number increases drastically. So I would say that statement about writers and the craft dying out is completely false. They’re just not looking hard enough for us 😉

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  3. I know, hm, about five authors in person I think, two of which are two of my favorite authors. There’s no way writing is a dying art. As long as people are around, there will be stories to tell, and those who will tell them.

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  4. I know many writers, mostly virtually, but I’ve met more in person than I can count on my hands (and without taking off my shoes, that’s my limit). But if you count the Web, then I know hundreds of active writers.

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  5. Face to face, probably a dozen by name. In Oregon we have a strong writing community with various associations and frequent events. I don’t belong to or go to all of them (some have fees), but each year I meet a few new writers.

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  6. I agree that writing is not a dying art and instead is growing on the independent side. I live around a large writing community and I regret to say that I have been detached from for a while. But I plan to return back to that community 🙂

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  7. Nope. Writing is not a dying art. Its alive and kicking! I don’t personally know anyone who is writing a book sadly, but yes, I know many internet friends and acquaintances who are writing books. I consider people who write blogs as writers too!

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  8. I really don’t know that many writers. I think I knew of 3 and talked to them a lot. Then I got my publishing offer and now I know like 6 (including you).
    I think good writing is the lost art. It really takes a lot to get a readers attention now that we have “seen it all”. Leaving it harder on a writer to come out with something new that readers haven’t read before. Even I think I fail at completely drawing in the audience I would like because I’m far from a pro at this!

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  9. Detaching myself from the “writing community”, I know two writers – one coworker and one girl who I grew up with. In addition to that, I had about three other school friends who wrote fan fiction when we were growing up, although I don’t know if they still write today.

    When I include the writing community, I know a LOT of writers via the sci-fi conventions I attend/help run. But that’s kind of a niche thing, so your mileage may vary. At any rate, there are still about 100x more writers than there are opportunities to be published, so I’d hardly say it’s a dying art.

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    • I’m surprised none of the commenters said they know dozens of writers on a personal level. I think most are in single digits like you and I. But I also don’t think it’s a dying art. And I don’t think it’s even on the decline.

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  11. I did not realize how many I know. I know about fifteen writers outside of the Internet/WordPress. Some are just acquaintances, others are good friends. But there’s a good lot of them for sure.

    As for writing, I do not think it is necessarily dying. Is it battling with film? Yes. But much the same way that people are beginning to question both the meaning of art and modern art as a whole, I think writing is about to enter a sort of neo-renaissance. We’re questioning the rules of writing that once seemed set in stone, and it’s creating awesome pieces of written art. Your thoughts?

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  12. Hello, the definition of a writer can be different to different people. Some may count only professional writers, ones that make money. Others may say that they only count those who write fiction. So to say writing is a dying art is a complete fallacy when there is untold numbers of blogs, books, journals, manifests and countless others being generated by the day. And since the human population is exploding, along with the highest number of educated people ever, there can only be an increase in the number of writers. Just perhaps not in the sense of a “classic” writer. Just my two pence, thank you for reading!

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