Feeling Real, People!

Yesterday, I mentioned that I miss having real connections with real people after the influx of all the online social networking. Now, I have a flip side sort of thing.

I recently became friends on Facebook with a couple of the people whose blogs I follow. These are people that I admire and feel inspired by. They are insightful and helpful and much further along in the writing process than I am. I don't know why I expected them to be somewhat super human and continue to just blow me away when I got introduced to a different forum for them, but I was pleasantly surprised.

They are all real people. They play the silly Facebook games and talk about their kids and spouses. They have real struggles and real personal lives. They aren't just a collection of great ideas and fascinating experiences that will ultimately be of benefit to me. They are the kind of people that I would actually want to hang out with, joke around with, and connect with. The kind of people who are all ready my friends. And I was glad that these people aren't afraid of sharing some of the funny, mundane things that make us all people.

I've read lots of advice about social networking and how to reach out to people. It's something that I've really struggled with, as far as finding a good balance. Do I talk about my kids on my blog? Do I mention when I'm having a really down day? Is it ok for me to combine my personal life with my writing life? And I think it would be ok to make things more personal, more real. I mean, writing is part of who I am. It's personal to me. The best way to make it real is to be willing to open up about me and what makes me someone special and different. If that means sharing a little more about me, then I'll gladly do it. Being real in every way is totally worth it.