Do you actually tell people that you're a writer? Or a freelancer? Or that you write poetry in your free time? Or that you run online blogs and whatnot?

I ask because sometimes it can be really hard to explain to people that what you do is a real "job" even if it doesn't require you to be at an office from 9-5. Or that maybe you don't have a defined role within a company.

I just tell them I'm a quadraplegic honey badger-pimp suffering from advanced Tourette's Syndrome.

It's MUCH easier to explain.

Sounds like a great idea to me! And yeah, it probably is easier to explain....especially to those who are clueless and will just think you're crazy and walk away.

I usually tell people the truth: that I'm a part time office worker and a professional writer. Unfortunately, most people don't understand that writing could be sufficient for living and try to ridicule my part time job. Then I explain them that writers are needed as much as for example teachers, doctors etc. because they enrich our life.

Around here, when I want to drop a bombshell, I just say quietly that I am a webmaster. Then all of a sudden the people around me would look at me like I am a god. Before the internet, I get the same effect from telling people that I was a programmer. That, for many people, also elevated me to a god-like status.

So, do I tell anyone I am a writer? No way. The way I look, they will jump to one of two conclusions. Either they think that I write dirty stories or they think that I write anti-government rhetoric. Probably has something to do with my hair and beard. Incidentally, people around here do not have hair or beard with my length and color.

I usually get mocked for not having a real job, as soon as I mention I am a video game developer they assume I just play games all day.

I end up either saying "I'm a NPC Scripter and Animator for a large company" or "I work for Sony".

Both seem to get people off my back.

Victor Leigh (01:34am Mon, Nov 26, 2012)

Around here, when I want to drop a bombshell, I just say quietly that I am a webmaster. Then all of a sudden the people around me would look at me like I am a god. Before the internet, I get the same effect from telling people that I was a programmer. That, for many people, also elevated me to a god-like status.

So, do I tell anyone I am a writer? No way. The way I look, they will jump to one of two conclusions. Either they think that I write dirty stories or they think that I write anti-government rhetoric. Probably has something to do with my hair and beard. Incidentally, people around here do not have hair or beard with my length and color.

Dirty stories, anti-government rhetoric and a beard. So you say that like it is a bad thing.
Oh the beard I have, the hair was long in the past. Now I say I am freelancing. Could be reporting, could be photography, could be Mercenary.
Ryder13

Ryder13 (07:34pm Wed, Nov 28, 2012)

Victor Leigh (01:34am Mon, Nov 26, 2012)

Around here, when I want to drop a bombshell, I just say quietly that I am a webmaster. Then all of a sudden the people around me would look at me like I am a god. Before the internet, I get the same effect from telling people that I was a programmer. That, for many people, also elevated me to a god-like status.

So, do I tell anyone I am a writer? No way. The way I look, they will jump to one of two conclusions. Either they think that I write dirty stories or they think that I write anti-government rhetoric. Probably has something to do with my hair and beard. Incidentally, people around here do not have hair or beard with my length and color.

Dirty stories, anti-government rhetoric and a beard. So you say that like it is a bad thing.
Oh the beard I have, the hair was long in the past. Now I say I am freelancing. Could be reporting, could be photography, could be Mercenary.
Ryder13

That depends on the society you are in. For the Chinese, a man usually keeps a beard only if his father has died and he is in mourning. For the Malays, a man usually keeps a beard only if he is into the more esoteric aspects of religion. Also the movies around here normally portray the bad guy with a beard.

Doesn't make too much difference to me, though. I am way past caring what most people think about me. I just know what I am and what I can do. I don't even have to prove it to anyone anymore. That's the advantage of being an old man.

I am a bit shy about it. I work at Hungry Jacks (USA: Burger King) and people see it as a dead end job for people with no qualifications or ambitions or skills to get a "better" job. I'm studying still but people judge very harshly. I don't care about the judging, I really really love my job because of the customer service, but I just avoid telling people or I say I'm in customer service ha ha.

As for the writing I would tell people and get haughty about it.


Victor: I would assume you wrote poetry. It would be soft poetry, concerning nature, peace, spirituality, love, or intimacy, but it would be pleasant and probably pretty friggin amazing. That's based on your avatar .

Poetry did you say? Let me see ...

Hark,
Do I hear
The whisper of a teardrop of rain,
Dripping from leaf
To leaf
In pain.

Wait,
I see a drop of light,
Glistening bright,
Peeking through the leaves,
Falling out of sight.

Now,
I sense the cut,
A strand of silk,
Throttles,
Terminates,
A dragon of a fly,
In the maze,
Of a spider's web.

No, that's not poetry. Any one million monkeys can do that on one million typewriters in one million years.

Bunny (10:29am Thu, Nov 29, 2012)

I am a bit shy about it. I work at Hungry Jacks (USA: Burger King) and people see it as a dead end job for people with no qualifications or ambitions or skills to get a "better" job. I'm studying still but people judge very harshly. I don't care about the judging, I really really love my job because of the customer service, but I just avoid telling people or I say I'm in customer service ha ha.

As for the writing I would tell people and get haughty about it.


Victor: I would assume you wrote poetry. It would be soft poetry, concerning nature, peace, spirituality, love, or intimacy, but it would be pleasant and probably pretty friggin amazing. That's based on your avatar .

Well I think you said you like your job. And IMHO that counts Big Time. I have had jobs that I liked, and I have had jobs that well, not so much. If you have a job and you work 40 hours a week or more at it and you just hate it, and I mean hate it every day, it is long and hard road.
Glad don't hate your job. People shouldn't assume. I mean hey you work, it is honest work.
You aren't conning people, you aren't cheating people. And you like it. And I guess the cheques (Canadian spelling) don't bounce.
Ryder13
 

Ha ha yep I definitely love it and I spend every day helping people .

Also Victor that was beautiful. If that is not poetry then what is?

I don't usually tell them my job unless they ask me. I am a quiet person, whom I consider myself kind of antisocial because if people don't ask, I won't say. I know there are a lot of my friends ask what kind of job do I do, which I just tell me the truth. I sometimes feel quite uncomfortable and annoying because the reason they ask is that they want to know how much do I make.

There are times when it is really annoying to answer the question "What do you do?" For most people, writing is a hustle and you really have to work at many different angles to try and make money from it. People who have a 9 to 5 life just don't get it, and many, if not most, don't respect it so I generally answer as vaguely as possible.

I hate the question, and I find it rude in most instances. If you've just met someone you shouldn't ask them about their job unless they bring it up in conversation.

I don't think it's rude to ask what someone does for a living when you just meet. I ask that all the time! Or if at school I ask what they're studying. When I get into a taxi here they ask if I'm going to work or what I do or study lol.

I think you just find it rude because you don't like the response you get .

Here's an illustration about how I tell people what my job is and how they react:

---
X: Ah, so what do you do for a living?
Me: Me? I'm an accountant.
X: That's awesome! You must be super good at math!
Me: No. Not really. But my calculator is. *laughs at his expression since he didn't get the joke* How about you?
X: Oh, nothing as good as yours. I'm a *inserts job description here*. I'm currently taking my masters.
Me: Oh. That's cool.
X: How about you? Any plans to take masters?
Me: No. Can't take masters when I'm already taking up law.
X: You're kidding me. Are you even human?
Me: Last time I checked, I am.
X: Any other stuff you're doing?
Me: I write romance novels.
X: Uhm, no offense meant, but, is that even a job?
Me: Yes, it is. You're probably going to be the next villain if you try to piss me off. BTW, no offense taken.
---

I adore my godmother. I didn't feel confident about introducing myself as a writer until she introduced me to other people as a writer, which was a pleasant surprise and has given me the confidence to keep doing so ever since.

Before then, my uncle told me that I can't call myself a writer until what I write sells under my name, which was immensely discouraging because I really didn't do anything else as a job but write. Ghostwrite. SEO web content write. Transcribe, if it came to that. If I couldn't call myself a writer, then I would essentially have to admit to being a nothing and that's just so depressing that it had a high potential of becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Triss (08:36am Sun, Nov 25, 2012)

Unfortunately, most people don't understand that writing could be sufficient for living and try to ridicule my part time job.

ChanellG (10:06am Wed, Nov 13, 2013)

People who have a 9 to 5 life just don't get it, and many, if not most, don't respect it

Yikes! It'd hate to live where you two do. I write freelance full-time, living the Bohemian life while working on my novel. My estranged and extended family are both immensely disappointed, but most people I've just met aren't so rude as to disparage somebody for the means they choose or resort to feed themselves and keep a roof over their head!

I mean, unless it's something illegal like prostitute, drug-dealer, or assassin for an organized crime syndicate.

Quote

I hate the question, and I find it rude in most instances. If you've just met someone you shouldn't ask them about their job unless they bring it up in conversation.

In most cultures, it seems to be an ice-breaker, like, "Do you have a significant other?" or "When are you and your significant other going to have kids?" (Which I also consider rude and presumptuous and nosy about something intensely private, and nothing's even ever happened to me to have a chip on my shoulder about it being a common conversation topic that's an ice breaker for complete strangers!)

But I can also sort of get why a job isn't considered private, because... well, it's essentially what we do for the society. Other people are also society. Therefore, it's taken for granted as such a peripheral thing to figure out how somebody else fits in. It's small talk. It's shooting the breeze.

(But seriously, though, intimate relationships interrogations from complete strangers have got to stop...)

I don't often get asked what I do for a living. I very often get the impression people think I am a weirdo and probably think I'm a lazy lay-about.  I have dreadlocks and definitely got a bohemian hippy chick look going on.

When I do get asked I say I am a writer and that I do work on the internet and various websites. Oddly enough when I add that it is done for the internet some people do seem to suddenly view it like a "real job" and suddenly think I'm one of these weird, brainy, eccentric types.

Ah well, wish I had the money that seems to get people who don't fit the mold labeled eccentric. 

Lol. I'm a freelancer myself. The last person who asked what I was doing for a living since leaving the restaurant I was working at, I said I sell methamphetamine.