There have been times when I have vomited words onto paper and never looked at them again or allowed others to look at them.

When I began to journal publicly, though, I developed a completely different relationship with my own writing and the audience. In fact, because I know so much about my audience through the journal community, I am very sensitive to how my words will be received. It is as if sometimes I limp, or favor an elbow…my writing altered by whether it will hurt or affect some larger part of my body. All the while, though, I rely on that audience to bring the words to life. Because, honestly, I can write privately forever…but those creations cannot come to life until someone else has read them…and I, as a writer, am not real flesh and blood, until that need has been appeased. (Although I am certainly flesh and blood as a teacher, or a daughter, or what have you. I cannot be a writer, however, until I have readers.)