Weekly Q&A: Q: I’ve published a few pieces but I still don’t feel like I can call myself a writer. When did you feel comfortable with that title? A: Relatable. For me, it happened gradually. Even after I had a full-time staffed writing job at a magazine, I still felt squirmy about calling myself a writer since I wasn’t being paid to write what I felt truly passionate about. Maybe this is silly, but I think part of what helped me warm up to it was to think of writing not as an identity or even an art but instead more as a craft or trade. Here’s another way of putting it: Unlike jobs with an “-ist” suffix (scientist, artist), which sound fancier and more abstract to me, “writer” is an action title. That is to say, if you write, you’re a writer, just in the same way that if you weld you’re a welder or if you log you’re a logger. Even if you don’t necessarily do it for money, if you’re dedicated to your craft and work at it often, you’re doing the damn thing, and that act of doing is what defines a “writer” to me.