Blog vs. Real Life Disconnect

I talk about things that I’m passionate about to my IRL friends. And they just look at me blankly. I talk about LetterMo and how it’s modeled after NaNoWriMo. And They look at me like, “What language was that?” I never realized how odd it is that I blog. And maybe it isn’t odd. It’s just that the people I talk to on a regular basis don’t blog, don’t journal, don’t write letters, don’t DO a lot of the same things I do.

And that’s FINE! I love all my IRL friends. I just have to remember that they may not be interested, or need more clarification, explanation, whatever.

It’s just amazing to me that not everyone has this deep need to get their words out. I get this feeling, that I have to get out what’s in my head, heart, soul in order to let go and move on. It’s almost like an itch that needs to be scratched. And I think why I’m so surprised is that in today’s society it’s common for people to put out their most inner thoughts on social media. Hell, what is Twitter if not blogging in microscopic form? But to ask someone to write more than 140 characters, they can’t comprehend it. It’s weird, to me at least.

It’s funny, my Mom always told me I’d make a great writer. I never really thought about it. And I never sat down and thought out a story, or plotline, or anything like that. But then I ran across an article online or something that said something to the effect of “Blogging is essentially published writing.” And that made me pause. Am I really a writer? Is this need to get stuff out of me, what Real Writers like Neil Gaiman and Juliet Blackwell feel? Only they have entire worlds to get out, I just have a rant, rave or some other nonsense.

Do any of my blog readers have the same feeling? Do you think of yourselves as writers? What do your IRL Non-Blogging friends think of your blog?

LetterMo

I started with GUSTO. But then, halfway into the month, I haven’t received a single letter. Well, I did get an email from the soldier I adopted, (I’ll explain in another post) and it’s to be expected, hell he’s in Afghanistan, he’s got better things to do than sit down and write a letter in longhand. And though I didn't post my mail address on there, I did post asking for people to send me a note on the side. And I've gotten two or three responses from that. But it seems as though the LetterMo forum has become yet another popularity contest; a sort of free-for-all swap meet when it comes to letters. Now, I know we all have our hobbies, writing, reading, watching movies, knitting, whatever. And when we find a group of like minded people our first (and probably most natural) inclination is to jump in and try to meet as many people as possible. Again, nothing wrong with it.

It’s just not for me.

I want pen-pals so I can form a connection. A deep connection that isn’t translatable to a post card or an art piece. Granted, they are always fun to receive. But I’m not going to send them, so it’s kind of one sided for people. And I don’t want to disappoint anyone. So, I don’t respond to the massive amounts of:

“Write me!”

“I’ll send you a post card to complete your collection.”

"Navigating these boards is too boring, I just want a massive list of addresses, so I can essentially send out a form letter, just in an artsy package."

I want to find a few people that I can have an amazing correspondence with; sort of a Best-Friend-in-the-Mailbox kind of thing. Instead I’m being shunted to the side because I’m not marching along to the same cadence as everyone else.

I’m sure I’ll find someone there that is interested in the same thing; a nice, thought out letter, specific to the person and their interests, a person more interested in the substance of the letter, rather than the number of items in the mailbox.

I've found a few prospects, we'll see if things progress.