I'm baaaack

Hello again!

In my last post I meant to write about something else, but it slipped my mind and by the time I remembered I figured it was too late and that I would just write about it in my next post.

It's kind of difficult to develop a completely original idea of public vs. private writing after reading so many other of my classmates' opinions, but I'll try my best.

I suppose I think of public writing as writing that portrays us as who we would like to be whereas private writing is who we really are. I don't think that public writing necessarily has to be directed towards a professional audience per se, it just has to have an audience. For this audience we are trying to extend our ideal selves in whatever way possible - whether that be through using bigger words or a different tone. We want to be thought of as competent, intelligent individuals. There can be several variations of public writing, such as professional or familiar or what have you, but it is still essentially public because we expect someone else to read it.

Private writing, however, does not have an audience. The writer is the audience. This is where our- and I think this is a kind of cheesy term, so forgive me - "true colors" emerge. We can just be ourselves and write anything. It doesn't have to make sense to anyone else; it doesn't have to be grammatically correct or eloquent. In some ways the writing we do solely for ourselves unveils emotions we might not be able to express in any other way. Of course, there is always the possibility that someone could happen upon this private writing, but when we are writing it, we do not necessarily have the intention of sharing it, and I think that is what allows us to just let go.

What is a writer, though? All of the movie trailers posted on the class blog portrayed different types of writers: academic, fiction, diary. For me, it was a reminder that a writer does not have to fit a specific stereotype, because I often forget that. If the only thing I know about a person is that they are a writer, I picture a single, middle-aged person, maybe wears glasses and has a pet or two. There are books and manuscripts all over their studio apartment or bungalow house, and they take their coffee black. But then I think about myself and how one of the "labels" I have always attached to myself is a writer. I don't fit that picture. I love coffee, but not black! If you think you're a writer, you're a writer. Everyone's definition of a writer changes, but I say if you want to call yourself a writer, do it. Does that make sense? I hope so.

Until next time,

Liz