Me Online vs Me in Real Life

Hello everyone.

So waaaaay back in 2015 I made it my new year's resolution to write more (well, it was one of 8 NYRs actually). I think I stuck to that pretty well, seeing as in February 2015 I started a full-time job as a company writer. This, if you're wondering, was huge for me, given that I'm dyslexic.

Writing is all I've ever wanted to do. Another initiative I did last year was to start a writing tasks game. I ended up with a tonne of tasks in total, but only ever got round to finishing half of them. The ones I did post got lovely feedback, and I loved doing it, so I thought I'd start a new game along the same lines.

This year I want to write more personal blogs. I've written a lot on this site, and some have been deeply personal - but they're quite few and far between. However, I think that developing my introspective writing skills will help me with my ultimate goal of publishing a work of fiction. Right now I'm great at describing situations and sensations - linking together action sequences etc. - but I'm awful at conveying emotion through characters. Hopefully, through this, I will improve.

I thought I'd start by quickly comparing my online persona to my real-life persona, just as a sort-of intro round:

- Online Jon is way more confident.
Online Jon, who will henceforth be known as eJon, is very willing to start, engage with existing, and offer alternative opinions to a range of discussions. eJon talks openly about his sex life, work life, home life etc, while life-Jon is far more reserved, timid even. The only thing life-Jon will do that eJon won't: show his face. But that's a story for another time.

- eJon is sexier
eJon has been called sexy on many occasions, by many ePeople. eJon likes this. life-Jon, meanwhile, is only really called sexy by one person, and doesn't get approached in the street, doesn't turn heads, looks distinctly average. I think this is because eJon has more confidence, which comes across well; but I also feel that it's because I'm able to get across my mind better online - the first you often notice of me is what I type. OK, life-Jon may not look bad with his shirt off, but you will very rarely see life-Jon with his shirt off, because he's too scared to take it off in public. Sexy eJon, however, flaunts, and flaunts good.

- life-Jon is waaaaaaaaaay better at puns than e-Jon.
Someone, over this site, once told me that my puns made me sound like I have a mental illness, before listing some of 'his' puns for comparison. It is important to note here that 'his' puns were all ripped verbatim from a 'top-20 puns' website; and yes - he gave me 20 puns. Basically, I love to make puns, and I'm often complimented about this by ePeople. I make them through PMs constantly, and I create puns threads when I'm bored. eJon is good at puns. life-Jon, meanwhile, if amazing at puns. I can get on a sort of roll that I can;t do online when making them in real life. I have the ability to de-construct words quickly, and throw them back out in messed up formats without missing a beat. I can't do that too a screen, and often spend ages staring into space while I come up with something. From what I can gather, that's the opposite to how most people do it.

- life-Jon doesn't really need attention
eJon craves attention - why do you think he wrote this blog? life-Jon, meanwhile, doesn't. I could quite happily spend a week at a time without human contact, and often try to lay-low in large groups of friends. I have no issue with attention - I almost perfectly straddle the border between an introvert and an extrovert (so, I'm just a 'trovert' then?) - and when the time comes I'll be stood in the middle for 20-30 (one time over 300) people speaking confidently and making jokes. I only do most of the things I do online though for attention, and I get a little surge of joy when I get some. Be that a PM, a message in chat, a blog comment.... It's totally different to how I am in reality.


So that's my intro. Please don't forget to feed my online need for attention with a comment, through, as I now have a request from you all:

I would like you to choose what I blog about next/in the future. You can request anything at all you feel you would like to read me write about, just so long as I can incorporate some form of introspection in there. If I like yours, I'll get it posted within a week or so (not putting a full deadline on it, as I work full time). Please leave a comment with what you'd like, or alternatively send a PM through if you don't want it to be read by everyone.

Thanks for reading, I hope you choose to take part!