When you think of an amateur you think of someone being a beginner, not very good, incompetent and lots of other negative terms.
However if you read on you will no longer think of an amateur as a negative thing. You will want to be an amateur and will probably enjoy calling yourself an amateur!
Austin Kleon talks about this subject in his book Show Your Work.
The Origins Of The Word Amateur
As with a lot of our language the word amateur derives from Latin. Amare in Latin means "to love". That then evolved to amator, "lover" and then to amatore in Italian and then in the late 18th century to the word amateur in French.
So to be an amateur is to be a lover of something.
If someone says they are an amateur photographer they are telling you that they're a lover of photography.
Amateurs Are Better Teachers
This may sound wrong but give me a chance to explain. Have you ever been taught by someone that has been so impatient and short with you? Chances are they were an expert in that field and knew the topic inside out.
The reasons they get impatient is because they believe what they are teaching you is so easy that anyone must be able to understand it as quickly as them. They probably use technical knowledge and assume you understand what they are talking about.
Now imagine you were being taught the same thing by someone that was just starting out. They knew the topic but they have only just learnt it. They are likely to be more attentive, explain things in a way they understood it when they were first learning and they will explaining any technical language they use.
I No Longer Want To Be An Expert
We strive to be experts in the fields we work in or take part in. That is mainly because we think being an expert will be great as people may think a certain way about you and you may feel a certain way about yourself.
However I would proudly call myself an amateur writer. I am learning every day and I am really enjoying learning about it. I am able to experiment, make mistakes and it doesn't matter if I do because I have the excuse of being an amateur.
I want to embrace this stage of my writing as it is the most fun. I think it would be like that for most activities.
I highly doubt I will ever become a professional writer but if I do I will have to try and remember to step back and read through my amateur writing so I can feel that love again.
"Even now I want to keep my amateur spirit, to spend my time, to be in the sport with all my heart." - Sergei Bubka
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Thanks for reading,
Gav
