What term describes who is telling the story or writing the text?

The term that accurately describes who is telling the story or writing the text is "narrator." The narrator is the voice or persona that conveys the narrative in both fictional and nonfictional works. This term encompasses both first-person and third-person perspectives, reflecting how the story is conveyed to the audience.

In contrast, the author is the person who has written the text, but this does not always indicate the voice through which the story is told. The speaker is often associated with poetry or spoken word and refers to an individual delivering the text, which can sometimes be different from the narrator of a story. Characters are figures within the narrative that may be involved in the plot but do not fulfill the role of telling the story. Thus, "narrator" is the most precise term for identifying the storyteller in a narrative context.