"I think I do, whether I am aware of it or not, write to please both myself and others."
Another possible way to look at the question of 'why keep a livejournal?' -- rather than just write privately, offline -- would be to phrase it as a desire to connect with others, to communicateand hear something back (not just communicating one's own vision without any thoughts or feelings coming back from the others).
For me, this seems slightly different than writing to PLEASE others, since not all communication is pleasing, and not all fiction is intended to be pleasant (as opposed to, say, thought-provoking, or cathartic, or even transformative). I think we often try to connect with other people through online writing without necessarily needing anyone's approval or validation (though that's always nice, and I'm sometimes a pathetic slave to positive reinforcement, myself!). Sometimes, it's enough to know that we've been heard and experienced, even if nobody else seems to agree with us.
On the other hand, if people aren't pleased by reading our journals more often than not and pleased by our fanfiction more than not, then they'll cease to read . . . and there go the human contact and communication possibilities out the window, as we end up speaking to an empty room.
So maybe it DOES come down, in the end, to trying to connect with others through the things that please us both, writer and reader alike -- through the shows that we love, and shared stories, and constructive dialogue that sparks an idea in the other or leads to deeper insights.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2009-06-30 09:02 pm (UTC)Another possible way to look at the question of 'why keep a livejournal?' -- rather than just write privately, offline -- would be to phrase it as a desire to connect with others, to communicate and hear something back (not just communicating one's own vision without any thoughts or feelings coming back from the others).
For me, this seems slightly different than writing to PLEASE others, since not all communication is pleasing, and not all fiction is intended to be pleasant (as opposed to, say, thought-provoking, or cathartic, or even transformative). I think we often try to connect with other people through online writing without necessarily needing anyone's approval or validation (though that's always nice, and I'm sometimes a pathetic slave to positive reinforcement, myself!). Sometimes, it's enough to know that we've been heard and experienced, even if nobody else seems to agree with us.
On the other hand, if people aren't pleased by reading our journals more often than not and pleased by our fanfiction more than not, then they'll cease to read . . . and there go the human contact and communication possibilities out the window, as we end up speaking to an empty room.
So maybe it DOES come down, in the end, to trying to connect with others through the things that please us both, writer and reader alike -- through the shows that we love, and shared stories, and constructive dialogue that sparks an idea in the other or leads to deeper insights.