...uh....ahh....well....

Tell me I'm not the only one here who starts writing a reply or new post, the first thing that comes to mind, then seeing that it may be received as, I don't know...flakey...odd...or daft...you backspace over it and instead write something more eloquent but less sporadic? Something that your inner editor approves of?

You don't?
Oh, well I don't either then. I was just wondering.

Uh, hehe, uh, hmmm.....yeah, well, I'll just uh see myself out.

Now I'm not saying I do that. No, no. But let's just say I did. Why wouldn't I just say what came to mind first-hand, straight from the heart? If I was someone who did that and you know now that I'm not right, is that being flakey, odd or daft? Um, I'll tell you what I think after you tell me what you think. Just don't splurt it out.

I double dare ya to write a stream of thought post...... ha ha he haha you're too scare to do it.... :-) :-) No back spacing. No holding back. Just let it go........or meet me over at the asylum.

Sporatic or spontaneous as your writing may be, I think you are applying editing to your writing before or as you write. And you're the only one who does it (waving from the keyboard). I also think the tendency to want to be perfect on the page (whether it is paper or a computer monitor) is one reason we develop writer's block (meet the person who is an expert at blocking herself from writing). What's the worst thing that would happen if you just wrote and didn't edited it before writing? The very worst thing? Would the world end from a grammatical error? Someone die from a misspelling? A stranger might know you emotionally instead of intellectually? Oh, I know. Someone, a stranger, might think you aren't as intelligent as you would like them to think. But is that true? I know a lot of intelligent people who can't spell. And can't you write impulsively and then go back and reread it and then edit it? What's the worst thing that would happen if you changed the order of your editing? I don't know. The expectations we set for ourselves are sometimes higher than those we set for other people. I bet you would forgive me for making a punctuation error. Would you so easily forgive yourself? If you don't, why not? Isn't treating yourself with courtesy and kindness more important than treating me that way? Why prejudge an idea before anyone else has had a chance to read it? What's wrong with the daft or the flakey? Sometimes the offbeat comment can stir an idea and an interesting conversation. No answers. Just asking. I bet I took you too seriously. That seems to be a problem for me. Apologies. I need to lighten up.

Am I that transparent? Hey no backspaces for real Uh, stopped to think there...have to put dots to show..stalkling uh stalling damn I am anal retentive this is great the this is great therapy thanks dialyn i needed that

I guess you're just hopelessly a perfectionist. I'm going back to enjoy my salad days.

uhmm .. ok I was gonna say something ..but I started to type..and relized.. sh#*.. no spell check here. After reviewing for a few moments I relized I had to backspace to fix that cause, geesh can't he even spell that, and well when I started moving forward again. Ooops left out a comma or was that a period. Well again as I was saying ...uhmm..what was I saying?

Dialyn is right . I'm glad she pointed it out. It's like throwing trash on the floor in front of someone who's compulsive about clenliness ah cleanliness. It drives them crazy not to be able to pick up the trash. Not beinf ah being able to use the backspace is driving me CRAZy

None of us is perfect and we are all harder on ourselve thatn anyone else would be. There, see no back space and tow, no three, typos. That's what makes us humab sorry human, and more interesting LOL

Well I find it hard to be...to communicate with text only, not seeing my audience to get a feel for how they respond. The irony is that I began this thread trying to break out of my shell a little, try something new and D. pointed out my disengenuousness right away. (hey no backspaces...not bad with mistakes so far :) It's funny 'cos I immediately relised---realised--that I've been trying so hard to be flawless and mt--my- own energies have attracted attention to the flaws I was trying to hide. This all seems trivial to you gut--guys-- I'm sure but I think this anal retentiveness keeps me from making any real progress in completing a longer piece. It's odd but this has been therapeutic. I hope D. was not, or didn't think I was being a wiseass. I really did need it. That's gotta be a hundred words at least without backspacing thanks guys for the prop up

....not offended is what he meant. Box four is the real me but reading it now it seems like I was being a wiseacker. Which is not what I intended. well I think I'll be a silent forum member for a while and work on my story. cheers :)

I don't think it's unusual, if that helps at all. I have a personal example. I haven't allowed comments on my graphics. Why? Because I think I'm such hot stuff? No, because I'm afraid people will tell me they hate what I'm doing, and then I won't have the courage to continue posting and that will stop me from doing graphics which has been very self-satisfying. Will they? I don't know because it's only in my head that the hyper-criticism is taking place. I don't send my stuff out to publishers for the same reason. Can't be rejected if you don't take a chance. And here's the weird thing. I did some photographs into graphics for awhile and I stopped doing them. Why? Because I got too much praise for doing them and I stopped believing people were sincere. Talk about a twisted nature! Thing is, sometimes we scare ourselves into being immobilized without anything real having happened. What's the worse thing that could happen in letting go of needing to be perfect? Gee, we find out you're human. Welcome to the race! (The human race, that is.) Hey, only four back spaces used. ;) That's pretty good for me.

That was my verbose way of saying I wasn't offended. ;) Hope that story goes well. :)

Personally that is why I write with pen and paper first - - - my pen doesn't have a back space and I'm too much of a perfectionist to use twink :) Then again - I have started ripping the pages out of the books and rewriting it huff But I know how it feels - it is my biggest enemy... the perfection illness... sigh

Hey, big group hug among recovering perfectionists Winc. LOL

Most of my stuff gets to draft and never any fruther because of this illness. :) I think it gets people down also - like a depression because you either make a mistake, or feel that you are not doing good enough work. It is funny, but when I was writing when I was 11-18 I didn't care about what I wrote, and I just wrote. I even got some stories published in magazines and that was cool! Now I'm older and supposed to 'know better' I find it a lot harder to throw a story together and feel 'safe' about it. It isn't like we think we might be judged on what we write, we know full well that whatever we write will have some type of judgement put against it, and it will change the way people look at us. Well I suppose I should stop writing stories about the Smurfs then and how they are really a terrorist network which has vowed to steal all my coffee... sigh... why don't people believe me!!! boo hoo WiNC