Epithany

Just had a minor epiphany...I realized that in some respects I've had more genuine interactions with people through written correspondence, whether it was livejournal, FB, email, or letters than necessarily in person or over the phone. I think because when we write -- we give the other person time to say what they are feeling and thinking, and we have time to read and re-read to ensure we understood it. We can also clarify and come back to it later if we are too busy. It's there. Not something to be misremembered or misheard.

It can be translated, often more effectively than oral speech. Since you can see the text, and are not just relying on the sounds, and hoping they aren't muffled by other sounds.

And clarification can be asked repeatedly.

There's a permanence too - to the conversation. That is lacking in oral or face-to-face, unless you've recorded it.

And, in writing, you can often see the person, not their gender, their physique, their organic form, their race --- but who they are through the words and how they use or play with words. What they say.

Granted tonal quality is lost, but sometimes that can be clarified as well.

I realized it tonight with various interactions...on Face Book, and thinking back over the ones I've had online over the years.

I don't know if it is fair to say one is better. But to say that friends you met soley through written correspondence aren't friends? Is silly. Even if we have no faces and have never met in person.

I realized today, that often I'm at my most authentic and candid when I'm on live journal. Under a fake name. I feel free to say what I think. In some respects the people reading this journal know me better, far better in fact, than anyone else in my life does. Assuming of course you are still reading.

Writing on lj can feel at times like sending out messages in a bottle. You aren't quite sure who is on the receiving end.

(no subject)

Mother: I'm glad you are writing stories again. I don't really care if you publish them, at least you are writing.
Me:That's because you know I get crazy when I don't.

I've decided to work on multiple stories at the same time, and not wait until I've completed one to start another. If another comes to me, I will leap frog to it. In the past, I would put it on hold until I finished the one that I was steadfastly working on -- and would not let go of it until I did something with it or published it. This resulted in lengthy periods of writer's block and depression.

Now, I've chosen to free myself and just write the stories, not worrying so much where they end up.
I have hundreds of books on my shelves and Kindle that I have not read. It doesn't matter if the story gets out to the readers, it matters if I can write it and read it. I write stories for myself.
Everything else I write is for others.