When people ask, “What do you do?”, it’s always a little odd to answer “I’m a writer.” After all, many people do some writing as part of their job, even if it’s just signing an acknowledgement that they received their schedule. From my first jobs in fast food and warehouse work, I’ve never not needed to write at least something. Further, it’s something that has no degree or qualification required. With text-to-speech and AAC, one doesn’t even need to know how to write or speak to be a writer.

So at first it was a little uncomfortable for me, like answering “Oh, I go around breathing,” to the question of “What do you do?” Each writer has to come to their own understanding of what it means to answer “I’m a writer.”

For me, I mean that I’m a storyteller. I’ve always told stories in my jobs. Sometimes to customers (“if you add some fries, it will make a combo!”), sometimes to computers, but mostly to people. And mostly, those stories have been based on data and reasoning. But now, I count that as the purpose of the job. Storytelling is not a means to an end, but an end in itself.

I want people, when they read or hear my stories, to be marked, to be changed as people. Sometimes, I just want them to smile or laugh for a moment. Other times, I want them to see things in a new way.

And, ideally, I’d like them to give me a little money to tell them a story. That’s a part that I’m still working out. A few places I’ve published have paid me (thank you!), but I’m not consistently finding payment for my work yet. Doing a podcast is part of my work as a storyteller, too. (And if you’d like to support that, click on the Patreon link in the right-hand sidebar.) Ultimately, I’ll either find a literary agent and sell my books to publishers or I’ll find a small publisher who doesn’t require an agent or I’ll self-publish. The money will come eventually.

But I’m going to lead with calling myself a writer, even before the money is there. Because if I’m going to tell stories, I might as well start telling the ones I want to hear about myself.