She wrote a viral essay. Turns out it was AI

https://siobhanbrier.com/932/review-of-confessions-of-a-viral-ai-writer/

She really explains delicately why I think I create and engage in other art. Try to understand my own experiences through watching things, reading things, listening to things. All the way from a 2 minute song to 4 hour video essay’s. It’s great to know I am not alone in my experiences and feelings. 

Creating something can reveal something about yourself. Creation can create connection. Creating can be revealing things to yourself you don’t want to think about. 

“But in the end stories are about one person saying to another “This is the way it feels to me, can you understand what I’m saying, doe it feel that way to you too?’- Kazuo Ishiguro 

Fave lines:

You take these weights, these parts of yourself that you think are uniquely damaged and heavy and lost, then someone else mentions them and you realize that, this whole time, you have been sharing that weight, which makes it lighter. 

But fulfilling that social need is demanding work. You have to pay your social dues. You have to text first. You have to do favors. You have to forgive. You have to risk being traumatized. But we can find something similar to social connection with a fictional character, or the voice of author, or the plot of a story. 

If great writing gives you a personal connection, a moment’s respite from loneliness, then a great writer understands how to create and foster that connection