about this feature—the world of writing

To paraphrase Polonious' advice to his son Laertes in Shakespeare's play, Hamlet: Neither an author nor a writer be...and then thou canst not be false to any man.

To comment on this assertion, The Muse defines authors and writers as follows:

Authors

• The original writer of a literary work.
• One who practices writing as a profession.
• A person who writes a novel, poem, essay, or other literary work.
• The composer of a literary work, as distinguished from a compiler, translator, editor, or copyist.
• The originator and composer of a written composition.

• See a definition of literature: click here.

Writers

• One who writes, especially (but not necessarily) as an occupation.
• A person engaged in writing books, articles, stories, and the like, especially as part of an occupation or profession.
• A clerk, scribe, or the like.
• A person who commits his or her thoughts or ideas to writing, as one who keeps a diary.
• A person who writes or is able to write anything.

The Muse's comment: the maxim, Neither an author nor a writer be is way off the mark. To survive in this modern world, everyone must write, and write often. A few writers go on to author spectacular works that are false to no one.

The Muse concludes that the distinction between authors and writers is valid and should be preserved. All authors are writers, but not all writers are authors. Yet both authorship and writing can be challenging, interesting, and rewarding; both can be worthwhile.

In these pages, The Muse Of Language Arts honors both authors and writers and endeavors to assist them to become better at what they do, no matter what they pen.

who's in charge of what?

According to one way of reckoning, at their most basic level there are two kinds of writing:

• Creative writing—fiction.
• Expository writing—non-fiction.

According to another way of reckoning, at their most basic level there are two kinds of writing:

• Literary.
• Non-Literary.

Are we to accept both kinds of reckoning? If so, there are four fundamentally different but related kinds of writing: 1) creative, 2) expository, 3) literary, and 4) non-literary.

Since The Muse Of Literature's duties overlap those of The Muse Of Language Arts', the question arises: which muse should take charge of which kinds of writing features?

The two muses have settled this issue amicably, and with Electricka's blessing, too. Given that The Muse Of Literature's focus is on exploring written works from the reader's perspective and The Muse Of Language Arts' focus is on exploring the writing process, it seems agreeable to all parties to split the job in two, as follows:

• The Muse Of Literature will cede all four of the different kinds of writing features to The Muse Of Language Arts.
• The Muse of Language Arts will cede features having to do with reading literature to The Muse Of Literature.