Editing and Translating - as an Introduction

I have been an editor/translator more than twenty years. I've never worked for a major publisher or a major magazine, but walked many back roads, done many odd jobs. Still, looking back, what I have done are either editing or translating, nothing else. I cannot call myself other than an editor or a translator, or both. For instance, I once worked for a small political party for one year. I never made a speech of propaganda, nor try to organize people. All I did was editing political paper and books on politics. After that, I worked at a health food company for two years, and what I did was translating documents and editing publication for the promotion of the company. I never sold one product.
Editing and translating, those two jobs handle Japanese words. I do not call myself a linguist, but I know much about my tools which is a language. So, I started a creative writing course on a website. It is very strange that they never teach creative writing in Japan, at least in high schools. Sure, they teach "sakubun," composition, in elementary schools and junior high schools, but it lacks all essential of how-to-write-a-good-story. They always tell you "express yourself" without giving you a hold. It is impossible. As an editor, I found many writers mess up their story just because they don't know simple theories of paragraph, sentence, and story. I always gave them advises, and their work always improved. If they know the basic of writing, my work will be much easier. That is why I started teaching. If I were not an editor, I couldn't start my class. This way, I am an editor, rather than a teacher.
I have written some essays and interviews on magazines, contributed some articles for books, and published stories on the web. But I don't call myself a writer, or a journalist. I once worked with an old journalist, a woman worked most of her life for the liberation of women in Japanese rural area. I adore her work. She once told me, "A true journalist never speaks, but let people speak." It gave me a shock. At the time, I was trying to add a "writer" to my career. She taught me that those who speaks loud, writes clever, are never be true journalists or writers. I was ashamed of what I was. I was only trying to be a famous, distinctive writer, didn't care what writers for. And when I started to think what a writer should be, I had to conclude that I was not one.
Of course, there are many things that I do in my life other than editing and translating. I am a musician playing guitar and was a climber whose records were published on magazines. But they never gave me a cash. I cook good foods, grow vegetables in my garden. But not a cook or a farmer.

I have been an editor/translator and will always be. In this series, I will write whatever an editor and a translator have seen, and will see.