I have always made up stories, plots, and characters. I just didn't realize I was doing it.
I didn't know I was a writer until this past year, 2019.
As Faulkner put it, "if a story is in you, it has to come out."
That story, The Weight of Birds, came out in a fierce way, and here we are now.
Stories are all around us. The writer's job is to recognize them.