Why I Am Not A Writer

I am not a writer.

If I was a writer I would write. I would fill notebooks with uh ... notes and be itching to fire up the laptop in order to get the words down onto the page. I would burn with a desire to tell stories, put the world to rights and basically tell the world that I exist and that my opinions matter.

For a while, I thought maybe writing was my calling. My thing. But the more I thought about it - and the less time I actually spent putting finger to key - the more I realised I just didn't have the sense of drive that real writers have. Nowadays, the only thing calling me, siren-like, is the chip shop.

The vast majority of those who knock on The Music Fix's door professing a wish to contribute are not writers either. Or at least that's the impression they give. This can be frustrating when the intention is to find people who'll give us decent copy, stuff that people might want to read. If all you want is the occasional freebie or gig pass, there's no urgency or passion to your work or sense that you need do much more than is necessary to secure the next free gift.

Some of those who get in touch are journalism students, yet give no real impression of actually wanting to write. (By 'wanting to write' I mean pestering me for gigs or banging down the door for albums to cover.) Strikes me whatever they're teaching at the nation's universities and colleges, it isn't a grasp of the graft that's necessary in an industry so cutthroat it makes Sweeney Todd seem like Florence Nightingale.

But I can't be too dismissive. Like I said, I am not a writer either.

However, if you consider yourself to be a writer, here's my advice: write.