When Do I Earn the Right to Call Myself a Writer?

I'm excited that today's 3w4dw non-fannish topic is writing. This has been something that has been brewing in my brain for a while and I'm hopeful that perhaps people will have thoughts (that they'd like to share with me) on the topic.

I've been telling stories since I was an itty-bitty child. I remember dictating them to my brother, who would write them down for me. I remember taking the writing assignments in school very personally, because I often would wander away from teh stricly assigned topic to go wherever my imagination took me.

But it just didn't seem practical to want to be a writer. ( So I did other things. )

And now I have to go and finish writing the two articles I have due today. Cheers all!