When do you call yourself a writer? An article by historical fiction author, Chris Bishop

When do you call yourself a writer?

By Chris Bishop

When asked by a former colleague what I’ve been doing since I retired five years ago, I replied without hesitation that I’m now a writer. Even as I said it I felt a twinge of embarrassment as it somehow seemed rather presumptuous. After all, having spent most of my life aspiring to be a writer, I wasn’t sure what had changed that gave me the right to now regard myself as such.  

Of course, in its widest context the term ‘writer’ could encompass a vast range of related activities from posting blogs to writing books, all of them equally valid in terms of communicating by means of the written word. However, my own aspirations are much more basic than that and stem from an inherent desire to tell a good story - an instinct which probably echoes that of early man recounting his exploits whilst sitting around the campfire. Presumably that tradition gradually developed over the centuries into literature as we know it but, strangely enough, with the advent of audio books, I wonder whether the art of oral storytelling may have come full circle! 

So, what is it I feel I need to accomplish in order to regard myself as a writer? Well, when I was younger, I studied for professional exams which, once passed, entitled me to call myself a surveyor, but there’s no such rite of passage for becoming a writer. True, many of us serve a sort of apprenticeship as we strive to get published and for me that was a long and arduous process during which I met many other would-be writers who simply fell by the wayside – including some I regarded as being very talented indeed. 

I left school with very modest academic achievements but managed to blag my way into a job on a local newspaper where I did reasonably well and, even as a trainee reporter, I scored a few ‘By Lines’ before the paper folded and we were all made redundant. To support myself, I tried writing some short stories and used to pin up the rejection slips I received on the walls of my bedsit. That was always pretty depressing until I received one from the Times which included the usual pre-printed ‘thanks, but no thanks’ but, underneath that, someone had scribbled the words ‘Sorry, some good moments.’ That was all the encouragement I needed but, unfortunately, I ran out of money and was obliged to take a ‘proper job’.

 Nonetheless, I never gave up on the dream.

Over the years which followed I embarked on a varied and demanding career as a surveyor but, during that time, I managed to write and publish a series of a dozen humorous stories in a monthly windsurfing magazine under the name of ‘The Commodore’, plus several other short stories, one of which, ‘Fear of Flying’, won a competition and appeared in some sections of the Sunday Times Magazine.  

Inspired by that limited success, I decided it was time to concentrate on the novel I’d always wanted to write. Even so, it took several years before I managed to find a publisher who could see its potential. They (and others) encouraged me to revise the ending to facilitate at least one more book and, fortunately, I took their advice. I’ve now published five books in that series (The Shadow of the Raven), plus a sixth book (Oscar’s Tale) which is set in the same era!  

With all that under my belt I’ve surely served my time as an apprentice - but have I yet done enough to call myself a writer? After all, I’m still relatively new to the literary world. I therefore decided to ask a friend of mine who is already a successful writer.

‘You can call yourself whatever you like,’ she assured me.  ‘But you can only truly regard yourself as writer when others see you as such.’

So, the jury’s still out. Whilst I feel that I’ve made good progress, ill health may soon force me to stop but I take consolation from the fact that I have at least managed to combine writing with my love of Anglo-Saxon history – a subject which has fascinated me since I read Hereward the Wake at school. Also, I feel I chose my genre well as with historical fiction I was at least never short of inspiration.

Chris was born in London in 1951. After a successful career as a Chartered Surveyor, he retired to concentrate on writing, combining this with his lifelong interest in Anglo Saxon history.

His first novel, Blood and Destiny, was published in 2017 and his second, The Warrior with the Pierced Heart, in 2018, followed by The Final Reckoning in 2019 and Bloodlines in 2020. Together they form a series entitled The Shadow of the Raven, the fifth and final part of which - The Prodigal Son – was published in 2023.

Chris has also published numerous blogs about his work.

His other interests include travel, windsurfing and fly fishing. 

Chris is a member of the Historical Writers Association.

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