Expressing Yourself

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Zipotes

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As a writer, do you find you're able to express yourself better on paper than verbally?

When I'm really upset with someone, I like to write them a letter. I can get out all my emotions neatly and say everything I want to say. It doesn't come out nearly as convincing from my mouth.
Family members always have me write them letters when they want to send a complaint somewhere, as my arguments on paper are strong. In real life, I'm very shy and quiet though.

When you think of it, writer's are excellent at lying, creating believable fiction for pleasure.

I know for a fact that my good grades in highschool were partly due to my writing. I could impress the teachers with my essays, making them appear a lot more researched and planned out than they were. Sometimes I wouldn't even read a novel for English and still do excellent on the essay, it was all bull$%&#, but the teachers always fell for it.

I don't know anyone else that writes in real life, so thinking somebody here has to feel the same way.
 

Exir

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Hmmm... For me, I can express myself verbally in Chinese (my mother tongue) much better than English. However, I think my English writing skills are overtaking my Chinese writing skills. I'm certainly more eloquent in English when I write.
 

kct webber

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I get you. I used to be like that. As a kid. But I took public speaking in school, joined the debate team, and joined drama--simply because I knew I was bad at expressing myself verbally and needed to get better. Between that and being responsible for teaching large groups of soldiers as an NCO, I've become a good public speaker. It can be learned. If you can express yourself on paper, you can do it by speaking too, in my opinion, if you're willing to learn.
 

Zipotes

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I've learned to speak my mind verbally too, you have to when you're a parent. Things change in so many ways when you have kids. But, I'm still much better at presenting my case and/or feelings on paper.
 

RiseBeauty

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This question caught my eye because it has been on my mind recently. In my case before I started writing I expressed myself well verabally. After I began writing I noticed that as I improved as a writer my conversational skills began to slip. I put some thought into why this may have happened and what I learned was that when I write I take my time to consider what it is I mean to say and the best way to say it. However, when I would speak I had a tendency to rush and then have to go back and rephrase what I said. I suppose it was the inner editor emerging in another forum of expression ;)

Now what I do is take my time when speaking. I listen and think of what I mean to say and take a moment to find the right words. This helped considerably.

Nadja
 

Kathleen42

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I normally quite good at expressing myself verbally. The only exception is when I am very angry and in a situation where I can't let it show.
 

Ms Hollands

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I normally quite good at expressing myself verbally. The only exception is when I am very angry and in a situation where I can't let it show.

x2

...or when I'm really, really upset with someone and then I just can't find the words so I just have to glare at them and whimper until something comes out.
 

marie2

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I used to do that all the time. I couldn't express myself properly or as well as I wanted without writing a letter to the person first. However, this proved to be harder to do as time went by. I felt crippled by my own inability to express myself.

So I participated in three Model UN activities, took a few drama classes and forced myself to express my sentiments without the gripping fear that I might just say something really stupid.
 
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