Getting a grip on the problem

[alicebentley]

I really enjoy reading folks LJ posts. And I feel like I ought to be contributing my own observations, thoughts, questions and what-have-you as part of the conversation.

But when I go to put together a post, a dozen different things occur to convince me not to finish it.

Most commonly, I realize the thing I planned to write about is so trivial and unremarkable that it doesn't warrant bringing up.

Or the topic is about something that upset me - and writing about it is also upsetting. And I don't like to be upset, so I stop.

Sometimes the topic is a question so specific, and so unlikely to match my readers experience, that it feels odd to ask.

Recently there have been several cases where I really want to comment on someone else's post, but I don't feel like I'm close enough to them to make the sort of personal remarks their subject calls for.

This particular middle-of-the-night post almost foundered before it was begun, as I realized I didn't have an icon that fits my idea of "can't sleep, don't want to work". But I was strong and wrote this instead. And I'm just going to use my current default.

So, throw me a rope please, oh internet friends. Tell me what you'd like to read about, what I should push myself to write about, and I'll do my best to answer. (Answers not guaranteed to be prompt, especially since this weekend is the Emerald City Comic Con, and I'm expecting to work my butt off there.)

Comments

[controuble.livejournal.com]

I feel like I'm in the same boat. Are we rowing in circles?

What/why do other people really want to know about my life, any way?

[quadrivium.livejournal.com]

I've just gotten back into a posting mood myself. I have to be at the right level of busy to post regularly -- not so busy that I just have time to skim and nothing else -- not so slack that I have lost all will to do anything with the internet.

I wouldn't sweat the subject material too much. Sometimes posting that you did laundry will this huge chorus of me toos and the exposure of several secret laundry techniques. Other times a blatant question that seems like everyone will want to wade in on provokes nothing but crickets chirping.

Write for yourself. The internet will follow.

[chris-gerrib.livejournal.com]

I second the motion.

The Meaning of LiveJournal

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

We want to read what you want to write about. Social conversation isn't about topic; it's about the conversation. It's about the personal connection that comes from sharing trivialities.

The benefit of LiveJournal is it makes that sort of conversation easier (one to many) and long distance. SO write about trivialities. Make trivial comments to others. It's how friendships work. It's how life works.

B

Re: The Meaning of LiveJournal

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

You say above that you enjoy reading others posts. Is it because their posts are so remarkable, or so weighty? No; their posts are trivial too. The trivial becomes important because the person becomes important.

B

[mbcrui.livejournal.com]

I have letters that my great grandmother wrote to my grandfather when he was 16 or so and working on his sister's farm several hundred miles away. Most of them are 5+ pages. And the kind of things she talks about are the way the crops are growing, that they slaughtered a pig, that she saw so and so at church who asked after him... totally trivia which is priceless to us :)

Figure people who read your LJ like you and want to know how your life is going, even the 'trivia'... maybe especially the trivia as we're all spread out so far apart and not as active in each other's lives as we might like. I try to think of LJ like the GT Suite at a con. You never know what subject is going to come up, or who is going to plop down next to you and chat or what they're going to chat about... everything from recipes to quantum physics have come up in my experience. :) And if you don't like the conversation, you can wander away and come back later with the certainty that the conversation will change...

[daddy-guido.livejournal.com]

Since it's really supposed to be a journal, try just jotting stuff that's going on in your life - even if it seems insignificant to you now, it lets others get a glimpse of your day-to-day situation.

And you can ALWAYS feel free to comment on my stuff - I respect your opinions, or you wouldn't be on my FL.

I like LJ posts - all LJ posts.

[robespierrette.livejournal.com]

I read posts about which concert a friend of mine in MN is going to - and I have no idea who the bands are, or the friends he's going with, etc.. But it's still interesting. I also closely follow another friend's accounts of various freight deliveries he's getting to his home in rural MO.

I think folks have nailed it - it really doesn't matter what it's about.

I go through posting feasts and famines. Sometimes it's about my mood, and sometimes it's about how busy I am. And yes, there's a certain irony that the times when I have the most time to post are those times when I have the least to post about. But thankfully, no one's keeping score! :)

[kobold-8769.livejournal.com]

True, posting is a difficult art-form at times. I think most people have the same reasons for not posting. And on comments--comment away! Most people enjoy getting comments (I'm still waiting for my 1st on LJ).

[msagara.livejournal.com]

I have exactly the same feelings a lot of the time, especially I realize the thing I planned to write about is so trivial and unremarkable that it doesn't warrant bringing up. and I really want to comment on someone else's post, but I don't feel like I'm close enough to them to make the sort of personal remarks their subject calls for. The latter occurs most on friends-locked posts, because I almost feel as if I'm reading it by accident because of the way friends & reading lists work on LJ.

If a post isn't friends-locked, I'll often respond anyway, if no one has said what I want to say yet (if they have, I don't post), because I know that I'm perfectly happy to have people respond in comments to anything I say, and I force myself to generalize.

I like LJ because it's like one big, rambling, splintering conversation. I like the long essays, the long rants, the slice-of-life glimpses and the book reviews -- but I don't expect to like everything that anyone blogs about, on any site on the web.

Because I don't expect to be entertained -- and I think that's the stress, the desire to be entertaining, and the overwhelming certainty that I'm not -- over the years I've given myself as much permission as possible to not be entertaining.

It's enormously freeing, although the fear of being, you know, irrelevant or boring, still makes me twinge from time to time, and more often than not, what I'm afraid is going to bore people to tears can start interesting conversations.

[msagara.livejournal.com]

... and, of course, because I can't use five words when five hundred will do...

What I forgot to add was: You've mentioned that you're interested in comics and books before. I don't get out much on the web for comics or reading material (luddite -- and I do all my work at a computer, so I admit that I tend not to think of the computer as the place to read), and I'd be happy to see what your take on what you've found worthwhile or fun is. I know that other people might well be blogging/LJing about it, but actually, I don't see any of the comic blog things, and I am always, always, always interested in book opinions; I can read ten different people writing about the same book and still find it interesting.

[dizzydava.livejournal.com]

I've always been of the mind that your journal is more about you than anyone who would read it. Post what pleases you.

[mareklamo.livejournal.com]

I agree. Post what you like, and remember that people are reading even if they don't leave comments. My most trivial posts (like what I had for dinner) frequently garner the most comments.