Splitting Hairs

I like words. Obviously, right? I like the connotations of words, the shades of meaning within similar words.

I've been tinkering today with a new template for my business cards. When my laptop crashed last week, I lost the old ones. (PSA -- Back up all your stuff, now!) I loved the old ones, which my friend and CP made for me. They had this cool reddish double line, my name, and beneath that the title novelist.

Webster defines novelist this way:

"one who writes a fictional prose narrative of considerable length, typically having a plot unfolded by the actions, speech and thoughts of the characters." (By the way, "novel" comes from Latin, novellus, which means "new.")

Yep, that was me. I wrote all that. Still do. So I'm a novelist.

I pondered that while playing with the new design of my business cards.

There are others who would call me a writer. I tend to call myself that more than novelist, although novelist sounded pretty darn good on the business card.

Webster defines writer thusly:

"1) one who has written (something specified): the writer of the note. 2) an author."

But wait. I can't be an author! Only people who've published something are authors, if you are to believe the scuttle abounding on blogs and lists everywhere. Or even more specifically, only if you've sold to a large print house. Maybe a small print publisher. (<-- that's me being facetious, which my students could tell you is defined as "mildly sarcastic" or "flippant.")

I had to check out this whole author thing.

Flipped through Webster's. Found this definition:

"1) The writer of a literary work; a writer. 2) The beginner, originator, or creator of anything."

Hmmm. Yes, completely splitting hairs on the connotations there, but to me, sounds like I'm a novelist, a writer, and yes, even an author.

So what do you think I should put on the new business cards? ;-)