(no subject)

[jack]

Do you like reading your own writing?

My LJ or newsgroup comments always seem a bit pointless. My diary LJ entries show fairly well what I was doing at the time. Emails I sent generally turn out to be nice enough, but I was never as polite as I thought I was in official emails, and in social chatty emails the contact was nice but the content not as urgent as we thought at the time :)

In essays I generally find I may have been interesting, but wasn't putting over a thought as coherently as I might, more writing a connected series of things.

But in fiction or witterings of any sort, I always find myself much more entertained than anyone else ever seemed, as if I were narcissisticly my own favourite author.

See this post about a dangerous stellar radiation source. No-one else commented at all, but *I* thought I brought it off very well :)

Comments

[robhu.livejournal.com]

I enjoy your posts.

[mair_in_grenderich]

I suppose if you succeed in writing things down how you meant them to be, you *ought* to enjoy your own posts - they should perfectly match your sense of humour, etc, etc.

In the same way, I have a suspicion that most of my LJ icons entertain me far more than anyone else.

One or two of the things you have written I *really* liked (and have commented on at the time) ... but I don't know if they're the ones you specially like or not.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you. Really. (Though fwiw, that time, I wasn't trolling for emotional support, not that it isn't always welcome :))

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Well, yes :) Though I don't know how universal it is -- often I (and I think other people) have ideas we can't fully execute.

Like, in the real world, I can appreciate better cakes than I can bake :)

One or two of the things you have written I *really* liked (and have commented on at the time)

Ooh, thank you. Though now I'm curious, can you remember which :)

I'd expect some difference in my favorites to other people's. Many creators have commented that their favorites aren't everyone else's. But sometimes I seem to be the only one who appreciates something at all, and sometimes the only one who doesn't :) I can imagine it being incredibly frustrating if (a little like Tolkien and LOTR) everyone praises you for something you don't think is that great...

[robhu.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't friend you or comment if I thought your posts were uninteresting.

[robhu.livejournal.com]

I think your LJ icons tend to be more amusing than most.

[mair_in_grenderich]

mm. cake. I did think that sometimes it's impossible to get the picture in your head onto paper as well.

I did a splendid painting out of the hobbit for my first year art exam (we were read a passage from the hobbit and then told to paint something inspired by it). Well, I was dead pleased with it. I got 38% and came bottom of the class.

last year when I was writing my nine-month report I had terrible trouble getting it to be how I wanted - I knew what was good when I saw it/managed to write it, but I couldn't see how to /get/ it, so it was a bit hit and miss.

was there something like 'how the kitten became', and a similar one about fire?

[atreic.livejournal.com]

I love my own writing. I could read my own bloig / old diaries for ages.

Amusingly I was reading an old discussion on toothywiki once, and was about to add my opinion when I realised the next person had beautifully, clearly and wryly made exactly the points I was about to make. Gosh, thought I, only to be even more amazed to get to the end and find out it was written by me a year or two previously.

So yes, I love my own writing even when I don't know it is my writing.

That's not to say your writing isn't good though!

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

LOL. Yes, I've done that too. (Uh, with my comments, rather than yours, if you see what I mean)

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Oh yes. At least with words you stand a chance, my first comic was going to be "Early AI experiments", a man standing over a computer with raised arms as if cross/emphatic, shouting "think". It's funny in my head, but drawing it requires capturing that.. :)

was there something like 'how the kitten became', and a similar one about fire?

Oh yes, thank you! Sorry, I thought you were talking about old blog posts.

[mair_in_grenderich]

well, I read them in blog posts ...

[mair_in_grenderich]

At least with words you stand a chance

I generally think in pictures; I just use words as an intermediary for getting the picture from my head to someone else's.

When I try and draw the pictures that are in my head, they tend not really to be drawable. Maybe my imaginarypictures<-> pictures is like the RL-Escher mapping. Or maybe I just can't draw after all :)

[pavanne.livejournal.com]

I enjoy reading my own LJ; that's most of the reason why I write it. (Also for practical reasons like finding out 'so when did I last give blood?' or 'When did I last take holiday?' which I can never remember).

The advantage of reading back later is that over time it disinclines one from huge melodrama posts, which are embarrassing to read back. (It doesn't entirely prevent these, for what is the use of a diary which doesn't try to capture just a little of the passion of the moment?). It's also slightly revealing - it scares me how certain themes (particularly money) recur in my LJ with what seems to me disproportionate frequency.

So no, I don't think you're being overly narcissistic at all, though people who don't understand the whole blog/ diary thing are entitled to their own opinions.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

True, I guess they can work the same way. Indeed, certainly, if you keep fiddling until it matches what you imagined. I always find the feedback on images *incredibly* loose though, raising a small line on the face, and lo, I've transformed sad to not the intended happy, but, say, inhaling, and then have to explore at random to find something that looks right...

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

That makes sense. I have chosen to cut out all melodrama, just because it never goes well, a one-line (often private) summary does just as well in retrospect. I don't always enjoy reading, though it's always interesting to know.

Anything recurring often is a good hint :)

Enjoying it is good, if you can manage it. And it's helped IMMENSELY to place dates, of course.

(I didn't really feel *very* narcissistic, but had to self-efface a little, or I'd just be posting "mwahaha" :))

[chess]

I like reading my own writing.