hidden identity. To most people they are one person: Clark Kent, newspaper reporter; Peter Parker, photographer; Bruce Banner, nuclear physicist. On the flip side they are Superman, Spiderman and The Hulk. Surprise!
Sometimes it feels like writers also have two identities. Most people know you as your everyday identity and when they learn you’re a writer they can’t believe it. “You write? But you’re a fill-in-the-blank.” Perhaps the surprise is not that we have a secret identity but that we’re actually living it. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that everyone has a secret identity: painter, antique car restorer, pastry chef, business owner but they don’t act on it. The surprise is not that we have secret identities but that we’re living them. Because somehow, if you want it bad enough, 24 hours is enough time to be two people!
Here are a few writers and their surprising professions:
Zane Grey –dentist
Harper Lee -- reservation clerk for eastern Airlines
Jordan Sonneblick – middle school teacher
Kathy M. Miller – cellist
Maria V. Snyder – environmental meteorologist
Jodi Webb – marketing assistant for a newspaper
So what is your everyday identity? Or have you made the leap to fulltime writer?
My everyday identity is a 3rd grade teacher.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Jodi. We should be saying, "I'm a writer," without always a "but" following it or "and also" immediately afterwards.
Where is our heart? Where is our passion? What is the work that we love the most? THAT is the job we should mention first, let it stand there, alone, before we mention anything else we do.
Secret identity = stay-at-home mom
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ReplyDeleteGreat post, Jodi! I enjoyed reading it a lot.
Engineer/project manager is my so called weird profession :)
I am in the middle of a project started last year, which will last two years and it's called "Quitting my job for becoming a full time writer".
Wish me luck, ladies! :)
Great post, Jodi! Besides WOW, I own two retail businesses, a multimedia design agency, and freelance in my spare time. I just started marketing for businesses as well. So when someone asks what I do, I usually say "serial entrepreneur" or "woman of many hats." For years I just said "artist," and that's what I most relate to. But I often wonder if I should just go with the one that makes more money or the one I'm most passionate about?
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