I am a Writer

It still feels awkward when people ask what I do. Sometimes the words come easily.
I am a writer. Other times I stumble and trip. After all for twenty five years I had a different answer. Saying I am a writer now instead of an Ad Sales executive can sometimes feel like I have changed my name.

You would think after 8 months I would have my sea legs and Writer, Novelist, Blogger would easily slide off my tongue.

Not quite. Not yet.

Traveling this last week offered lots of good practice. Conversing with strangers along the way, exchanging stories, always gets to what do you do?

I noticed something this trip that I had not noticed before. When people asked what I did I heard the question as how do I make my money? Because, after all isn’t that what the conversation seems to revert to all day, every day, these days. Money. How you make it. How you lose it. How hard it is to come by.

That was what was making me stumble. Not the newness of my work. It was what I was hearing. How do you make your money? Not what do you do? Are you living your passion?

Corporate life was all about making money. Especially in sales. Every move you made all day, needed to get traced back to the revenue that came in as a result.

I write every day. I work at all those things that will eventually produce money from it, my blogs, my stories, expanding my network, shopping my novels. But there is not yet, a direct correlation to money in. And that’s what throws me. I am used to a linear line from point A to point B.

My corporate days were the embodiment of instant gratification. You made a pitch, you got a sale. Or not. Then you were on to the next prospect. Push, push. No time to waste.

My writing days are not like that. The gratification sometimes comes in the form of a piece I am really proud of, the next few pages of my story that flow easily or a great comment on my blog. Some days there is none. And right now, the money has yet to appear.

So when I am asked what do I do and I hear how do I make my money, it is not so much because I am not used to saying, I am a writer, it is from my conditioning that what we do must have a direct, linear and instant line to making money.

The world is changing a lot these days. So is how I answer the question what do I do and how do I make my money.

I am a writer.