What is a writer?

I have not been here recently to make a new post, due really to, tooo much other stuff filing my day.  I seem to be making major tracks with the book I started writing on my NANO quest and three poems have been written and sent off for competitions.  But the question I ask myself and I ask all of you out there to think about is,  What is a writer?
The more I write the more I am understanding that it is not I that is telling the story but my characters.  Something I had not experienced until about 10k into my NANO book, don't get me wrong I had written other stories, but they seemed to come from me, I can see where alot of writers get writing block from.  If you are only depending on yourself for a story how can you go forward when you reach a mental rock.  Surely if there is more than one of you telling the story when you get to that rock they can help you climb over it and tell you how it got there.  What I am saying really is, although, yes I am the writer, its my characters that are writing the story, and although I do have the delete option at the end of the document.  It is nice to listen to there version once in a while.