Identity crisis

I had a small identity crisis a few weeks ago.

Ever since I was a child learning how to write, I have written stories. The first one I recall was about a fish who wanted to save a spider who was caught somewhere on land. Another used my uncle's pig for inspiration - I don't remember what it was about, but I know it was titled "Robert the Pig and His Sweater."

From the beginning, it was stories. Fictional stories, that is. Sure, I kept a journal, but I never considered that writing practice. I actively wanted to never work for a newspaper. I wanted to be a novelist.

College hit, and I wanted a job where they would pay me to write, or at least edit, so I applied for Accent editor and Opinion editor without knowing the job description for either. I just knew I did NOT want to be a reporter. At all.

The entire time I worked for the student newspaper, I did not write an article, not a single one, and I worked there for three and a half years.

I left college with the goal of finding a job where I would use my degree, and I ended up at a newspaper again.

I have since written numerous articles. I am not technically a reporter, but I do report. A few weeks ago, I had the realization that I am a journalist and I mainly write nonfiction. As I said, it was a moment of crisis, and I'm not exaggerating.

Who am I as a writer?, I wanted to know. It seemed like this blog and some meager scraps of other writing were all I had to cling to for my "fiction writer" dream.

To end this crisis, I did a couple things. 1) I told myself that people love my nonfiction writing at the newspaper. It makes people happy, even though it may not seem grand. Or fictional. 2) I am now looking at my job as a second school of writing. I am learning a new form and gaining practice and skills in writing that will transfer over when I am finished with newspapers.

I also read yet another how-to-write book, this one called "Writing Tools" and written by Roy Peter Clark. I finished it recently (a good newspaper word that makes something see timely even when it is starting to overripen) and will share my notes with you over the next few weeks, along with explanations to flesh them out.

P.S. - Being a journalist isn't THAT bad, is it?