The Choosing Changes Everything

When I quit my job a year ago to write a novel, it changed how most people saw me.

There were questions about retirement. Assumptions about what I did all day—or didn’t do. Mostly, there were congratulations on not having to work anymore.

Except I didn't stop working.

I just started working on the thing I actually wanted to do.

Most days I’m at the desk longer than I ever was at a job. Seven days a week, late into the night. The pages don’t write themselves, and no one’s assigning them to me. If I don’t do it, it doesn’t get done.

It’s a good kind of busy, though, because I chose it. And the choosing changes everything.

What’s harder is explaining it.

“Writer” doesn’t quite cover it. It leaves out the publishing, promotion, pricing decisions, video creation, market setup, vendor management, branding—the other work that turns writing into a business.

Maybe we need a word to describe this, not for permission or validation, just for accuracy.

Until then, I’ll keep explaining, because I’d rather be understood than mislabeled.

And because, somewhere along the way, the other person usually pivots and asks what the book is about.

That's the moment that is worth having.