“I believe myself that a good writer doesn’t really need to be told anything except to keep at it.” —Chinua Achebe

Writers! Amirite?

Here’s a funny story. I recently met with the head of Bookflow’s technology team. “Writers!” he said. “They’re the best!”

Now, as a writer, I appreciated the truth of this statement. Still, it was a bit out of the blue, and from an unusual source, so I felt the need to dig a little deeper. “Thank you for noticing. What makes you say so?”

“Because they give the best feedback!” he explained. “It’s so detailed and clear! If there is a bug, they make it easy to fix. If they want something, they explain exactly what they mean. You have no idea what a headache technology projects are, because most people don’t describe anything!”

The Writing Habit

Ah, yes. You know you’re a writer when even the Email you send to complain about a computer bug is thoughtfully composed, appropriately descriptive, and—frankly—funny. The fact that Bookflow’s users are writers is having unexpected benefits: We are the techies’ favorite clients. As a result, they seem to love working the product and are absolutely eager to make it as good as it possibly can be.

When I Became A Writer

It’s interesting to note that, for many years, I didn’t feel comfortable calling myself a writer. These were years when I was not only writing, but publishing. “But I’m not a real writer,” I would say. I’m not quite sure what I thought a real writer was. I was writing, and I was real. Why wouldn’t I allow myself to claim the term? I don’t know.

The funny thing is that I was a writer down to my shoes even when the only writing I did was in a journal. In fact, writing is a part of my identity that permeates almost everything I do. When I spend time with my writing friends, they observe unusual things, make connections, and tell wonderful stories. I’ve even had random strangers come over to tell me and my friends that we should start a podcast or write down our dialogue. (“Oh, there’s more where that came from,” I always say.) I know I’m biased, but I think writers are some of the most fun people to be around. I love them for exactly the same reasons that the tech team does.

Thank You!

So thank you for being the writers you are! Thank you to everyone who has taken a moment to bring joy to the tech team with a piece of feedback. Keep on being your writerly selves!