I have a seriously strange job. When asked what I do, my answer is context-sensitive, based on the expected comprehension level of the asker. My business cards say “Creative Designer for Magic: The Gathering,” but if that answer would throw the asker into a whirl of question marks, I lead with something else. I’ve previously gone with “I’m a writer for a fantasy trading card game called Magic,” but that just leads to the inevitable follow-up question, “What do you write?” See if you can try to get across the essence of flavor text in a sentence. Maybe you’ll have better luck than I.
Doug: Well, there’s non-rules content at the bottom of these game cards ….
Asker: And your job is to write that?
Doug: No, not all the flavor text. There are thousands of different cards. Most of the time I coordinate teams of writers who submit flavor text.
Asker: That’s what you do all day? You … coordinate writers. For cards.
Doug: Well, no, that’s actually just part of my job, I—
Asker: Oh! I’m trying to write a greeting card for my dad’s birthday—you should write the message!
Doug: Sigh.
Asker: Did you just say the word “sigh,” instead of sighing?
Doug: Slap.
