Those of you familiar with Vexxarr should know by now that I do not consider myself an artist. I am a writer. I do not say this out of some misplaced sense of pride. I do a lot of things to pay the rent. I shoot and direct video. I edit. I build rapid prototypes of consumer goods. I build castles for no other reason than to detonate them using highly illegal explosives.
But what I do, that is what I actually have a gift for, turns out to be writing. Sure I have a facile grasp of my native tongue. I know how to write a complete sentence. I grok the clause. I can avoid fragments and even use them to underscore a point. I know what a paragraph is actually supposed to contain. And I have a pronounced spelling deficiency - a requisite quality in all great writers.
All of this is...fine.
What makes me a writer is the opportunity, desire and ability to shape precise, complete thoughts with the written word and convey those thoughts accurately to another, detached individual. That makes someone a writer no matter how else they may be able to put food on the table. In my case, it helps that I have on occasion been paid to place words on a page. In a specific order no less.
So I now must reexamine my dreams. I know what it is that I have desired to do all these many years. Only now do I realize what it is that I can really do and have done over this same passage of time. It can be a sobering realization. Imagine studying to be a doctor for twenty years only to discover that you have a baker's hands. Even though you can appreciate the art and nobility of your God-given destiny, it doesn't mean that you will suddenly like bear claws...
