There's something to be said for the intimacy of the written word.

Right now it's just you, and me. Nobody else. Someone may be reading over your shoulder, but it's only you that's really hearing me.

Because you're the only person I'm speaking to.

There may be voyeurs to our shared experience, but at this moment, there is just you, the unknown reader, and me.

You could be my beau, my boss, my friend, or someone with a long seething grudge. And though I don't know who you are, here I am, talking to you all alone. The sound of my words ringing in your head.

It's one of the things I like about writing. getting into peoples brains. In fact you're welcoing me in. Just by continuing to read, you are providing me with a level of acceptance.

Love letters, hate mail, and everything in between. Anything I've written... as soon as it is read by some, it gives me acceptance. Them may not like what I say, but they have opened their minds and let me in.

When I write for clients, I get inside other people's heads and convince them to do things. Spend money. Apply for this job. Believe. I'll pop up in them and whisper little things in their conscious or subconscious, and then leave them alone.

I'll suggest people try new things. Sure, coffee with fake kahlua flavouring and mounds of whipped cream... so good it's evil.

Never tried it myself... but a friend did...apparently I misspelled vile.

When writing for World Youth Day, the joke in the office was "A heathen, an agnostic and a jew got together to make ads for the Pope." I was the heathen of that unholy trinity. And hundreds of thousands came.

When I write for myself, it gets far more interesting

Because I'm writing not to please a client. It's to please myself. Oh yes. that's what I'm doing. I like to think I'm trying to reach out to others, but really all I'm doing is sitting back in my comfy computer chair and pleasuring myself through my keyboard.

The reason it's online is because I'm a bit of an exhibitionist, and a bit of a trollop.

Oh yes, there are places where I have written things for others to read, and you won't even know it's me. The guilty pleasures of anonymous writing.

But the real intimacy comes from laying myself open for you to see. And then your eyes touch my words.

I'm here now... Inside your brain as you read this. And if my words can get in here, perhaps they'll find a way to look around inside your brain, and find a way to retrieve some of the things within.

kat@adchick.com