Person and persona, and riding the line.

I was one of those people who first saw you at a con, and was inspired by that to seek out your books and read your LJ. I find you delightful both in person and online and don't want you to ever change.

For what it's worth, I think your online persona is a pretty damn cool person. If I wasn't so shy and crowd-averse, I'd love to meet you in real space, because I'm sure you're a pretty damn cool person to hang out with there, too.

I think I'm more assured online, because I at least have time to edit my words before everybody else reads/hears them. That edit feature does make a difference. Also the lack of people making weird faces at me while I try to chase down a stray thought that's got away...

There is absolutely nothing wrong with your 'online persona'. All authors have them, most non-authors have them too, though they're less likely to draw flack over it.

Frankly those people who grate on my nerves most are the ones who find it a requirement of their day to diss others or to in some way rain on another person's parade in an effort to make themselves feel better. My advice to them--when they cross my path--is for them to grow up and stop pissing in other people's sandboxes.

Now about that book signing script... I think you may just be onto something there. Stand-ins and all, it could really save a lot of time for the really important things, like a good pee. ;)

You can't please everyone and would you really want to try? I think that most of us who read your journal and your books delight in your personality as it comes through your writings. Personally, I think that you are interesting, weird, enjoyable, amazing, and weird (but in a good way). I am awed with the way you juggle modern social norms and traditional folklore (I had never even heard of a clurican before!) And Discount Armegeddon fills me with joy.

I also feel a little bit protective of you and want to go knock some blocks off of anyone who hurt you.

Not sure whether LJ is eating my long comment or hiding it from me. Off to do some detective work to try and figure out which.

In my opinion, while it's possible for somebody to adopt an online persona that is notably different from their real self, it's still an act. And in the end, while nobody on the Internet would know if I'm a dog or not *, I like to think that who I am online is a reasonable image of who I am in real life - less shy than reality, maybe a little smarter, but in general, enough like me that nobody would be surprised by who I was when I'm not hiding behind my keyboard.

(*In one interpretation of reality, I am a dog. And my mother's a dragon. I don't actually agree with it, but it's a source of cheap jokes.)

[Seems to have been "eating". Let's try this again...]

I agree with most of this, with a couple of caveats: I don't think it's necessarily accurate to label a persona as artificial, and I think the commenter's mistake is in failing to recognize that you have not one online persona, but several -- all of which have counterparts in the outside world.

I'm reminded in particular -- notably by a comment posted a couple of friends-lists over from here -- of the glory days of the SFRT (aka "Science Fiction RoundTable") on GEnie. [Quick history lesson for the gallery: GEnie existed back in the days of CompuServe and Prodigy and first-gen AOL, and was very much like a really structured dial-up verson of LiveJournal. The SFRT was far and away the busiest of many subject-oriented RoundTables, attracting legions of posters -- fans and pro SF/F writers alike.]

On GEnie, the authors and fen both often had personas (personae?), sometimes more than one. Susan Shwartz, author of numerous excellent novels, was the Green-Eyed Kzin, occasional wielder of the Sacred Salmon of Correction. Esther Friesner, author ditto, was Mome of the High Church of Chocolate, Mistress of Cheeblemancy, and sometimes Auntie Esther, advice columnist to the clue-challenged. Various Bay Area writers and fen created the Clan Borgia, devoted equally to elegant parties (mostly imaginary) and elegantly subtle poisons (always imaginary). And I invented the persona of a sales-agent and wielder of deus ex machina powers as a means of (pretending to) maintain order among the virtual parties and the cattle raids.

A good many of these personas were purely online inventions, used for extended (and often hilarious) bouts of interactive storytelling. Just now, though, I'm most drawn to Esther Friesner's personas, because she had several, more than one of which developed real-world lives. I'm not certain now which came first, but "Auntie Esther" existed both on GEnie and -- for at least a couple of years -- in the pages of the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. As to cheeblemancy: "cheeble!", the cry of the Enraged War Hamster, originated online, via Esther's tales of Huey the Oracular Hamster (a real household pet). Likewise, the art of cheeblemancy was invented on GEnie but evolved into a charitable fund-raising exercise that Esther took to a number of real-life SF conventions.

I'd submit that just as there were several virtual Esthers on GEnie back in the day, there are several virtual Seanans inhabiting the present LJ. There's writer-Seanan, who posts word counts on novels and monthly current-project reports. There's advice-columnist Seanan, who posts Comic-Con survival guides and 50-things-about-writing essays. There's fangirl-Seanan, who posts about the X-Men and My Little Ponies and Stephen King and James Gunn and the amazing YA novels she's been reading lately. There's musical Seanan, who posts song lyrics and releases albums with some of the songs on them. And there is sometimes tired Seanan, who posts when the spoon drawer is running low and the various other Seanans are out on break. It's just that you have and maintain more personae than most of us do -- and also that yours occasionally (and inevitably, considering the numbers involved) bleed into one another to some degree.

And they are also, as you observe, all you. That's both like and unlike many of the GEnie-personas of yore. Mostly, Susan's Green-Eyed Kzin was an affectation marked by a certain elegantly dangerous politeness, which might manifest either online or off; OTOH, the Clan Borgia and my own Senior Field Agent were essentially role-playing characters.

And there, again, is where your commenter loses his way; not only is he not distinguishing among your several personas, he's wrongly assuming that some of them are conscious inventions rather than essential aspects of the larger Seanan.

(Yet another comment from someone who met you first in person and then started reading your LJ... and has no regrets about either.)

You-in-writing reminds me of you-in-person, and of course you can't get every aspect of yourself to fit in a keyboard-composed two dimensional message. Please keep writing whatever you feel like writing, and a lot of us will be very pleased to keep reading.

I think you're amazing, and whoever told you such silly things needs to go eat some chocolate and relax. Most everyone I know is the same person online as they are off, though offline you get more of the random bits, and sometimes less of the well thought out brilliance. And you know what? That's perfectly okay. So piffle to them, and just keep being your awesome self.

I think this is a pretty accurate self-analysis (as someone who knows you periodically in person as well as online).

Functionally, one of the reasons your online persona is as engaging as it is is because it (and you) are genuine. Every once in a while, someone goes online to promote themselves rather than because they're genuinely interested in engaging with people. And you know what? We can tell; we can always tell.

Part of that is that when someone's just there to promote themselves, very little of them as a person tends to shine through. Conversely, when, like you, someone's online persona is just -them-, with some rough edges filed off because it turns out that online you can edit, it gives a pretty accurate sense of the person (and is just a lot more fun).

I'll chime in that the few times I've met you you've been quite charming and kind to my children and even when I ran into you in a non-author moment you were kind.

I like to read your journal and find it not much more different than reading my friends from home journals - people I rarely see but still love and the journals are the way the friendships are maintained. Plus, it makes the fangirl in me really happy when you respond to comments. Point being, roundabout is that you are far from grating and what I mostly see is kind and thoughtful and funny and human.

been quite charming and kind to my children and even when I ran into you in a non-author moment you were kind.

This! (And very gracious about scarves and a pouch. O:> )

I am very what you see is what you get. People I've met online (many of my dearest friends, including the one I am wedded to) have often told me that I'm exactly who they expected me to be, for better or for worse. Many many people thought this was worse. When I was an admin at a sizable enough interwebz community I got reams of hate mail. This was eventually why I decided "SUCH INTERWEBZ COMMUNITIES ARE NOT FOR ME!!! I DO NOT WISH TO DEAL WITH HATE MAIL BECAUSE I BANNED AN UNDERAGE GIRL FOR POSTING PICTURES OF HER BOOBIES!!!" but so it goes. What you see is what you get: if it is not for you online it won't be for you in the flesh either and there's nothing really wrong with that, unless you feel the need to stalk me about how horrible a human being I am, in which case you totally need a life.

Naturally online you would not get certain aspects of my personality. If you want to win with me when it is my turn to judge in apples to apples, play "Worms." I love this card. It will ALWAYS WIN. I don't care if you're playing it for "Erudite." I get behind a world with erudite worms. I find the idea enchanting, just I would find vindictive worms, evil worms, horrid worms, and innocent worms equally delightful. So you win!!!!!!! WORMS ALWAYS WINS!! ALWAYS!!!!

So sister, I feel what you say. Not everyone can love you, and that's fine, but that doesn't mean you're a persona. *I* happen to think you are the bees knees, particularly for your rockin' politeness on Das Interwebz and your polite ability to tell people (...including me. I'm still really sorry about the whole "DID THIS GET SOLD!!!" thing. Particularly since, like, three days later you were able to announce it was...I still feel bad. I will be very aware of doing that to someone again....) that XYZ is bothersome without coming off as rude. It's so hard to be a smart, assertive woman and not be called a bitch but I really don't think you do. If I am ever in a position like yours I sincerely hope I come off half as well as I think you do, and well, if people don't like it, maybe I am not their cup of tea. I believe this even when I look at you and go "What is she smoking?!?!?!" and to me this is a high compliment, for what it's worth.

..Though this may be because I am also extremely excitable about anything I like and I like a lot of things. Like worms. And chickens! And giant robots! And the color orange! (I just bought a BRIGHT PUMPKIN ORANGE BRIEFCASE!!!! YAYYY!!!!) I am inclined to approve of other enthusiastic people because darn it the world requires more of us.

I would describe your online presence as bubbly or effervescent. Should I be in the mood for still water, instead, I can find it someplace else. Perhaps your commenter is unaware, but ... it's a big Internet out there, folks.

Firstly, I just realized we've been friends for seven years, holy Coyote!

When I started reading this, my response was "PERSONA huh buh what?" because... you're Seanan. This is a Seanan blog. We're all a little different online, but persona?

In person, you are online-you fed pixie-stix and shown something shiny. SOFAST OMG. To be fair, when I witnessed this you were in book heaven, your best friend was also there, and I was having one of my lovely social-anxiety attacks, so I wasn't giving you much reason to pause. Hence my just sort of trailing you through the store and occasionally blurting things out.

And signing/singing you is JUST like online-you, only with +100 music.


I think if we sat down at a diner, shared the blank-staring-at-menu until we discovered something we'd willingly ingest (picky chicks unite!), I wouldn't be nearly as nervous, and might even be...y'know, me. At some point in the next seven years, I say we wrangle ourselves some rides and actually attempt this! I consider you a beloved friend, even though 99% of our interactions have been online. It'd be nice!

If you can get me the script and a blond wig, I'll volunteer. I'll even shave.

I found that your blog was good preparation for meeting you in person, but that I'm glad I was prepared for you to be different. You're not totally different people online and off, but there are certainly facets your blog and books didn't prepare me for. They're awesome facets. I'm just used to things (and people) not living up to my expectations, so I was pleasantly surprised.

As for myself, I've definitely been filtering out certain parts of myself in particular situations. I'm less swear-y at work and on Twitter (where some of the people I work with follow me), I hardly talk about my personal life at all on my writing blog, and I'm angsty as anything on LJ. I've told my friends I'm not going to filter for their sakes, and so they need to let me know if I've offended them. I'm going to assume that, unless I make someone cry, they like me at my least censored. And, after walking on eggshells all day with people who are very confused by sarcasm and need things explained 8 times in a row, I just don't have the patience to navigate social constructs anymore.

I like you a lot, Seanan, but I wish I lived just a little closer to you so I could get to know you better. And to grab you when you tried to run into traffic.

Yep, everyone has a right to their opinion and the world wasn't made so we could all be friends and hold hands and sing Barney songs together. Grating is part of what I like about you. I'm sure people find me grating, too. That's what happens when you aren't all happy-happy, joy-joy all the time. (Actually, I find people who are happy-happy, joy-joy all the time really grating. Like 'please someone hand me a brick so I can make them stop' grating.) Although, now that I think about it, I probably seem way more cheerful online than I am in person. And I hug people online - because you can show you care without, you know, actually touching them. :hugs:

;o)

If you have an online persona, it's been amazingly consistant for the last eight years or so. I would think that'd be enough to qualify as a real personality.

I think that you are awesome online but even more fun in person. (Right this moment I'm watching the video podcast of Sword & Laser with you on it, and it's a cross between the two - sadly minus being able to interact with you.)

I think it's normal to be more measured online, since, you know, it's not generally in real time - unless we're talking a google+ hangout or irc or something.

Your presence, online or offline, is a delight to me. I find your enthusiasm energizing and inspiring, but some people, they just don't get it. Sad for them, I am.

Grating? Really?

My mind boggles at that description of you.

I usually use contextual filters. My standard example is "Do not make cannibalism jokes while people are eating," though that is just one of many.

Left to my own devices, or in company that I can actually relax in, things are different.

I believe...

That maniacal laughter is therapeutic.
That the Evil Overlord List takes most of the fun out of being an Evil Overlord.
That humor can be found in almost everything if you take the time to look.

I find your non-standard enthusiasms both cheering and reassuring. Sometimes it feels like there's no else out there but mundanes and it is such a comfort to hear / read your waxing enthusiastic about methods of wiping out humanity or whatever else strikes your fancy.

I completely grok this. I have been accused of being a pollyanna, which I think is incredibly silly since part of what I use my journal for is tracking my ups and downs. (I am bipolar and currently not on medications due to liver issues. I'm in therapy and am *trying* to control it that way. It's a rough road.)

But! People see what they want to see. And for those of us with chronic pain, if we're upbeat and happy, we're strange, because everyone disabled should be miserable, dontchaknow!

The haters have a right to their opinions, but I've started tuning them out. I'd rather be weird and mostly content with life, than wander around miserable just to justify someone else's worldview.