Exaggerating Truths?

Another topic discussed by that post was the need to exaggerate truths in order to tell a story properly.  I feel that sometimes I need to do the same in order to tell a story properly.  When I feel like I wanted the audience to think how I think, to feel how I feel, and to temporarily place themselves in my shoes and my brain, I needed to exaggerate.  I want to paint an emotional picture to reflect how I felt, and perhaps give justification as to how I reacted a certain way.

Exaggerating the truth, however, is not quite lying.  The facts are all there – but since ultimately I wanted to convey accurately my emotional state in a certain moment, I wanted to find a way to get them to completely understand, or at least relate, to my story.

How much *can* you say on your own blog?

In reference to a previous post I wrote about…

The author of the other linked post made a very good point – and I quote:

Why share this? I don’t know. I’ve come across a blogger or two who seem to be struggling who how transparent they can be in their posts. It is a forum pretty much anyone can access. If they tell private details of their lives they risk offending involved parties. They also invite unwelcome comments and criticism from those referred to as “trolls.” I wonder if there isn’t a way to incorporate O’Brien’s thoughts on story-truth and happening-truth in the blogosphere. I know for myself, if I could take some of my happening-truth and craft it into a story, it might be cathartic for me. Something to think about.

I’m sure almost everyone has come across this once in a while.  I struggled with my livejournal posts, and my previous blogs.  I am still very sensitive to what I write here at times.  I like to maintain some form of privacy, but yet still be able to be open.  Should what I write on the blogosphere stay on the blogosphere and not enter into say, a real life interpersonal relationship?  Ideally, what I want is some control over the information flow, and how some people perceive what they read.

To that, I have come up with several (all really menial and poor) solutions to this problem.  The first is password protecting my posts, or keeping my posts private altogether.  This way I can write all that I want and only I will be able to read it.  Nonetheless, there is something not very satisfactory about it.  My other solution is to be cryptic in what I write.  This offers another drawback – I am not able to be honest in my own blog!

In any event, I think I’ll continue to do the same for now, until I can achieve a better balance / solution set to any of this.