it's wednesday. i'm in that kind of a mood

At some point last night while not-sleeping, I had this absolutely brilliant LJ post idea. And before anyone goes, "Why, I never think of neat narratives of my life to post in my LJ" yes, fine, well, I do. I have walked around five or so separate cities with svmadelyn running a narrative in my head of events just in case I want to post about it. Which you know, I don't, because as this story illustrates, I forget these things quickly.

(Question: for those of you who narrate your lives in your heads--is it in first person or third?)

(If your answer to the above is "For the love of God, why aren't you on medication, jenn?" then of course I don't do any sort of thing such as that. You misread it. You are interrogating the question from the wrong perspective!)

(For the rest of you, third person singular, present tense.)

Or sometimes, I think better of random, carefully considered, wildly inappropriate posting ideas, like, in that way that assures I do not get my ass handed to me on a paper plate because I am just in the mood to rant about something and something stumbled across my line of sight.

(I mean, this is why I have the twenty four hour cooling off unless I'm that sure that my flock people aren't going to say "Wow, Jenn, you're incredibly stupid. Shut up now." That, people, is not all that often.)

This is a really lengthy way of saying, I really wish I could add content here. I think it was about feedback and authorial intent? But honestly, I was sleep deprived and possibly hallucinating. For all I know, it was about the sunny side of eggs and how that relates to fannish discussion. And trust me, I can make really horrific stretchy metaphors out of anything, so it could have indeed been an essay comparing fandom to eggs.

ETA: ...I just noticed some people have friended me recently. So this is a neat way to say hi to you, and by 'neat', I mean, crazy.

Comments

[wrenlet.livejournal.com]

Usually first person, voiceover style. Like Michael Westen in Burn Notice only, sadly, SO much less cool. Occasionally first person past, like I'm telling the story later during my wildly successful standup comedy spectacular. (Yes, you've met me, I can hear your disbelieving hysteria from here.)

[seperis.livejournal.com]

*GLEE* That? Is awesome. Especially the stand-up. Especially the stand-up.

[tygress.livejournal.com]

At least you haven't exposed the noobies to the Care Bear pornfic yet. ;)

*wanders off, whistling innocently*

(Also, for the record, usually first person narrative, with lots of mental sub-rants and parenthesis)

[seperis.livejournal.com]

At least you haven't exposed the noobies to the Care Bear pornfic yet. ;)

I have nightmares that people friended me like, two hours before the carebear porn showed up in comments. I mean, I can see their poor faces.

(Also, for the record, usually first person narrative, with lots of mental sub-rants and parenthesis)

I'm on a parenthesis/semi-colon kick right now. I can see this.

[trobadora]

I don't narrate much, but when I do, it's not only third person, but past tense.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

*giggles* Past tense? That is awesome. You are writing your autobiography from the future!

[hilarytamar.livejournal.com]

I love these posts. Just so you know there's at least one person out there in sympathy with you.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

I feel far more validated afterward. *nods hopefully*

[dine.livejournal.com]

my inner narrative is usually first person, present tense - though on very rare occasions it's third person, present. I've not figured out just what triggers that change. possibly I should explore meds myself? *g*

[seperis.livejournal.com]

I think oerthinking would be dangerous. *nods wisely* Go with the pov and tense changes. Feel your inner voice.

....this could totally be the most awesome self-help book ever.

[tricksterquinn.livejournal.com]

First person present, generally blog-style (think Dr Horrible, I guess?), but I address myself in third person and a generally condescending tone. I also frequently find that I write LJ posts in my head and then never write them down. There's a reason I rarely actually manage to update mine. If it isn't stream-of-conciousness while in front of a computer, it doesn't happen. Sad but true.

Okay, now I have visions of you talking about fandom and eggs and that just leads me to Merlin laying them. Conclusive proof that fandom rots your brainz!

[seperis.livejournal.com]

There's a reason I rarely actually manage to update mine. If it isn't stream-of-conciousness while in front of a computer, it doesn't happen. Sad but true.

This. My better posts are random and spontaneous. The ones I overthink tend to be very long and filled with words only found in crossword puzzles and advanced SAT study guides.

Okay, now I have visions of you talking about fandom and eggs and that just leads me to Merlin laying them. Conclusive proof that fandom rots your brainz!

I really want to write this. I know it would break me forever, but so. Damn. Tempting.

[syllic.livejournal.com]

First person singular; the tense varies.

I think if it's funny (read: funny to me, which often means 'not to anyone else), I tend to go with the present tense: "So there I am, right, and this man shows up, wearing the same ridiculous hat I'd mocked in a shop window seconds before..."

I keep a constant narrative going, too, in case I want to tell someone about it later in writing (which has, at some points in my life, meant posting on LJ). For a long while during my late teenage years, I actually experienced things as e-mails to my closest friend--I was at the Moulin Rouge, having an uncomfortable time with my parents and I saw not breasts, but typed, awkward, descriptions of breasts.

(I wanted to have an LJ-rant about Daily Mail-culture last week. I left a voicemail on someone's phone instead and thought better of it.)

Feedback and authorial intent: I never would have said this before, but more and more I think they can be intimately linked, if some part of you hasn't quite hit on the vein along which a story will run. The sunny side of eggs: people... like... bright... things, and hesitate to engage with the gritty brownish undersides for fear of causing controversy?

I don't know. I once stretched a metaphor about shoving spaghetti down food processor into a whole essay about bad writing.

HI.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

I keep a constant narrative going, too, in case I want to tell someone about it later in writing (which has, at some points in my life, meant posting on LJ). For a long while during my late teenage years, I actually experienced things as e-mails to my closest friend--I was at the Moulin Rouge, having an uncomfortable time with my parents and I saw not breasts, but typed, awkward, descriptions of breasts.

Yes yes yes. This. This.

Feedback and authorial intent: I never would have said this before, but more and more I think they can be intimately linked, if some part of you hasn't quite hit on the vein along which a story will run. The sunny side of eggs: people... like... bright... things, and hesitate to engage with the gritty brownish undersides for fear of causing controversy?

I am terrified how reasonable that sounds. I could create an egg macro to go with it.

[sorchasilver.livejournal.com]

Third person, present tense, almost constant narrative.

The LJ posts in my head are far more interesting than the ones I actually make, I am sure. I just wish I could remember them while I am online.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

The LJ posts in my head are far more interesting than the ones I actually make, I am sure. I just wish I could remember them while I am online.

I think that too, or they sound much more brilliant when I can be sarcatstic without italics.

[janedavitt.livejournal.com]

Third person. I think :-) I've always done it.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

*g* I had to think about it when I thought about the question too, then I remmebered I always use my name. Hence, third person.

[lillian13.livejournal.com]

Oh, I come up with witty LJ posts all the time, generally when I'm driving or in the shower, or the incident I want to talk about is actually happening. Then I forget it, and it's gone forever into the recesses of my mind.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

*sad* If only our computers could read our minds already.

[mary-russell11.livejournal.com]

*dies*
*points to your post* and this is why I friended you.
re:carebear porn.......luckily for you, I was already warped so it didn't leave any permanent damage*shrugs*

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Just temporary, then?

(Not that I have nightmares or anything. About care bear rape.)

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

I don't narrate stuff in my head, but I definitely compose LJ posts in my head.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

How often do you get it to LJ? *curious*

[seperis.livejournal.com]

*nods* Either I forget, or it sounds so much better in my head. *sighs*

[akacat]

Narration: first person singular. Just as if I was describing it to someone.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Ooh, nice. Present tense or past?

[schneestern.livejournal.com]

I narrate my life in my own head constantly. There's lots of cursing, because there's always, always a reason for that in my life. Funnily enough the whole thing jumps wildly between first person, present and third person, past. I mean if you can't skip between POVs inside your own head where can you?

Usually I forget what I wanted to post about in the first place by the time I get near a computer.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Funnily enough the whole thing jumps wildly between first person, present and third person, past. I mean if you can't skip between POVs inside your own head where can you?

From your text to God's ear, man. This. If you want to crazy omniscient, by God, that is your right!

(Acutally, that would be so cool. And terrifying. And cool!)

Usually I forget what I wanted to post about in the first place by the time I get near a computer.

Yes, this.

[transtempts.livejournal.com]

Sometimes first person voiceover, what is really bad is when I have been speaking Spanish all morning and I start NARRATING in Spanish, and can't snap out of it. (And if I am counting at all, aloud or to myself, I count in French). I suspect the bouts of narration are to keep me from occasionally shoving people off cliffs.

Speaking of being crazy, I dreamed that you sent me some awesome fic snippets and I went to my inbox this morning and was crushed to find this was not so. *sobs into tissue*

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Awww.

Give me a few mor edays? I swear I'm not avoiding you, but eww, I have not felt well the last week. I'll be back on normal nights by Saturday to whine.

[d-moonchild.livejournal.com]

Yay, I'm not the only one! Third person singular, only past tense.

Everyday I see more proof that my flist is the best place to go when I need to convince myself I'm not completely nuts :)

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Totally this. My Flist is my validation.

[chopchica.livejournal.com]

YOU'D BETTER SLEEP TONIGHT, MISSY!

[seperis.livejournal.com]

I did! And I just woke up. Yeah.

....

No, I have no idea either.

[mesmorizee.livejournal.com]

Okay, I actually have something to say, not interesting or important but it’s something I’ve been thinking about now and then, and I’m bored so I thought I would stop lurking around and actually comment to one of your posts. If I’m not hit by my usual shyness before I hit post, in which case you won’t be reading this. Anyway…

First of all I would like to point out that English is not my native language yet I think in English all the time.

I don’t narrate my life that much but when I do I tend to switch between third or first person and while I use present tense most of the time, it’s quite possible that I’ve used past tense now and then.

What I do a lot though is composing journal posts (and text messages I never send to anyone) in my head. A lot of them. From the moment I get up I’m constantly thinking about how I would write down what happens to me in a post, even the completely boring things I do! Fortunately I never post this (or well, I might have posted a short summary now and again).

But most of the time I tend to just come up with a great journal post, I know every single word I’m going to write and then never write it but I’m already convinced that I have written it which means that half the time I post and talk about something I’m sure I’ve mentioned I haven’t actually mentioned it. It’s really annoying not knowing what I have written down and what I haven’t.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

IT's always interesting!

What I do a lot though is composing journal posts (and text messages I never send to anyone) in my head. A lot of them. From the moment I get up I’m constantly thinking about how I would write down what happens to me in a post, even the completely boring things I do! Fortunately I never post this (or well, I might have posted a short summary now and again).

Yes! I've done that! Especially if something really interesting happens, I set my inner narrative to descriptive in hopes I'll remember.

But most of the time I tend to just come up with a great journal post, I know every single word I’m going to write and then never write it but I’m already convinced that I have written it which means that half the time I post and talk about something I’m sure I’ve mentioned I haven’t actually mentioned it. It’s really annoying not knowing what I have written down and what I haven’t.

Yes! YES YES YES! I have actually gone looking for LJ entries I never wrote!

What's your native language?

[ellixis.livejournal.com]

First person singular (on occasion, unpredictably, first person plural), past tense. I tend to repeat my accounts of events several times to myself, sometimes experimenting with different wordings. I write long LJ posts in my head often, but they rarely make it onto LJ; when I sit down later to type them, they feel somehow pompous and attention-seeking.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

*snickers* I love it. That is awesome.

[pyrae.livejournal.com]

I used to narrate in third-person past tense, but these days I mostly just keep up a running first-person commentary that analyzes my every move. Did I go from normal to weird or from weird to normal, or just from one sort of weird to another without passing anywhere near normal?

[lurkerlynne.livejournal.com]

I write stories in my head, most of which never see paper. I've built many a world, only to let it fade. "Done! Next!"

I'd friend but I don't like using my flist. There's a certain joy in remembering I haven't visited recently and hopping over to see what's been posted. I came for the fic and stayed for the weirdness. :)

[innocentsmith.livejournal.com]

It depends on the content for me, I think. I've started using first person, both past and present, more often since coming to LJ. Especially when I'm angry - composing a rant in your head is very useful in convincing yourself not to actually say it out loud.

But ever since I was a kid I've done the third person past self-narration thing. Sometimes as though my life were a fantasy novel ("The day [Smith] fell through the rift in the worlds, the weather was overcast and she had spent most of the morning with the kind of slight cold she always seemed to get when she hadn't gotten enough sleep the night before..") and sometimes in the assured, reflective tones of some actor hired to voice over my someday TV biography. I once made my brother and cousins burst into hysterical laughter when we were talking about our childhoods by thoughtfully intoning: "Evidence of [Smith]'s genius came early in life..."] I was happy they were amused, obviously, but it didn't seem that funny to me: that's just what the inside of my head sounds like when I'm particularly pleased with myself.

OTOH, I tend to rebuke myself or recalcitrant parts of my body with "we," as though I were a sort of bickersome committee. Like, "We don't care if you want to finish that last chapter, brain. We want to sleep."

...Also, hi! *waves* I am one of the people who friended you recently! And I say this now, sure you're not at all put off by the fact that I've just revealed myself to be irretrievably insane! ^_^

[out-there.livejournal.com]

(Question: for those of you who narrate your lives in your heads--is it in first person or third?)


Depends on my mood at the time. Frequently, it's Bridget Jones style first person with all the "I"s dropped out. ...which is how I post to LJ half the time, so that makes sense.

[pkoceres.livejournal.com]

*falls over laughing* Care Bear pornfic? \o/ Clearly I've been missing out.
I sometimes narrate my life out loud, so I think you're in good company as far as the crazy thing goes. <3