The following excerpt is taken from Liz Gilbert’s book on creativity Big Magic
I beg you not to worry about (others) definitions and distinction… It will only weigh you down and trouble your mind, and we need to stay light and unburdened as possible in order to keep you creating. Whether you think you are brilliant or a loser, just make whatever you need and throw it out there. Let other people pigeonhole you however they need to. And pigeonhole you they shall, because that’s what people like to do. Actually, pigeonholing is something people need to do in order to feel that they have set the chaos of existence into some kind of reassuring order.
Thus, people will stick you in all sorts of boxes. They’ll call you a genius, or a fraud, to an amateur, or a pretender, or a wannabe, or a has-been, or a hobbyist, or an also-ran, or a rising star, or a master of reinvention. They may say flattering things about you, or they may say dismissive things about you. They may call you a mere genre novelist, or a mere children’s book illustrator, or a mere commercial photographer, or a mere community theatre actor…. or a mere whatever.
It doesn’t matter in the least. Let people have their opinions. More than that – let be people be in love with their opinions, just as you and I are in love with ours. But never delude yourself into believing that you require someone else’s blessing (or even their comprehension) in order to make your own creative work. And always remember that people’s judgements about you are none of your business.
Lastly, remember what W. C. Fields had to say on this point :
“It ain’t what they call you, it’s what you answer to.”
Actually, don’t even bother answering.
Just keep doing your thing.
Emerging From The Dark Night 