What does a writer do?

Someone asked me today: “What does a writer do?” The implication, of course, was that the effort and/or talent needed to be a writer is minimal. I pondered this for a moment, less for the audacity and ignorance of the question and more as a technical challenge. What, indeed, does a writer do?

I used the following example.

Me: Imagine a nice, average woman in her mid-thirties. She’s standing in the park on a sunny day.

Philistine: Okay…

Me: I’m going to describe this same person, in the same circumstances, two different ways. I want you to pay attention to how I can change your perception of the same scene with a few words that might have similar definitions, but mean something totally different.

Philistine: *eye roll* Go ahead.

Me: Mandy waved to me as I approached. She was a comfortable, pleasantly plump woman with sparkling blue eyes.

Philistine: Total soccer mom. She’s probably on her way to the grocery store.

Me: Mandy gestured languidly to me as I strolled towards her. I couldn’t help but notice a mischievous twinkle in her eyes as I evaluated her voluptuous figure.

Philistine: WTF does “languidly” mean?

Me: …never mind. What image does that conjure?

Philistine: She’s total road trash, man. She’s probably on her fourth husband.

Me: See what I mean? I took the same facts–a slightly overweight woman, waving at me, standing in the sun. I painted two different pictures with the words. Notice, too, that the styles are different. One is something out of a cheesy detective novel, the other is simple prose.

Philistine: And you get paid for this?

Me: Well, some people do.

I’ll leave it to you guys to decide if I got the better of the exchange.