writerly

[rahy-ter-lee]

adverb

1. characteristic or typical of an author, especially a professional one.

2. markedly literary.

writerly

/ ˈraɪtəlɪ /

adjective

1. of or characteristic of a writer; literary

Word History and Origins

Origin of writerly¹

First recorded in 1955–60; writer ( def. ) + -ly ( def. )

Example Sentences

Whether by writerly intention or inattention, this will be no more of an emotional issue for Vince than it will have anything to do with the rest of the story, apart from sending him back to NYC, where he is $140,000 in the hole over gambling debts.

From Los Angeles Times

In this ancient Tuscan city, Leonardo is awakened by his writerly ambitions, a swoony love for medieval Italian authors like Dante and an intellectual disdain for the 20th century.

From Los Angeles Times

Exuberance and dreaminess, writerly sophistication and technical ambition, drugs and madness: Wilson’s exquisite craft captured all of it, with his band the Beach Boys leaving behind a singularly inventive and exultant body of work, one that scripted and embodied California to the world.

From Los Angeles Times

Em dashes are among the most writerly of punctuation marks precisely because they don’t really need to be there.

From Salon

The novelist, who arrived in the U.S. as a child refugee with his family in 1975, elucidates his writerly influences and interrogates the idea that any minority voice might serve as a “model” for one race or ethnicity.

From Los Angeles Times