I guess that makes me self-indulgent, as well.

But when I write my blogs, I write from my perspective (obviously) about things that occur to me, and I use words to describe the impact those “things” have had. I think it takes humility to assume that your thoughts might appeal to and be shared by someone else. To assume all your intellect and emotions are unique would be arrogant.

So, please, self-indulge – so I can keep getting something out of what you write.

A text is the objective fact of a document, in the case of writing, it literally refers to the text of what is written.

Context is then the subjective experience of the text by an individual. Each person has their own history and mental makeup that informs how they experience the text.

So if someone writes a story about a seasdie east coast town and I read it as someone from a seaside west coast town, my Context will be different than someone raised in the town the story was about. Its unavoidable. We all experience everything based upon out past and makeup.

The tricky thing is that the authors have their own context in relation to the text. If you lived in a town you are writing about, you have all sorts of emotional connections and background knowledge tthat your reader won’t have. Even if they live there, if they were from a different generation it will change the experience.

To convey the essence of your subjective experence in text is a difficult task. You must abstract your experience to its necessary components, then imagine how the text will interact with people you’ve never been before. It is easy to go awry.

As a result, of these intricate relationships, its safe to say it is impossible to write something outside of your own experience. Therefor everything written is to some extent an expression of yourself, the writer. Within that usually lies the motivation for writing.

However, the reader most likely reads as an extension of THEMSELVES also. They look for themes they can relate to or subjects that interest them.

Succesful writers know this and keep both their own motivations and those of their readers in mind. Are you making it worth their while to take the time to read what you write. Are you expressing your intents in the manner most conducive to others understanding it?

Self indulgence often doesn’t effect this equation, provided the indulgences in question inform the reader. Proust and Joyce may have been the most indulgent writers ever, but they are still appreciated today because the quality of their indulgences. However, the writer-reader relationship is deep and important, and if one truly wishes to communicate, they must keep both sides in mind

This is just a poor statement. It presumes that there is an intended audience, when it could simply be writing for the sake of writing. Yes it’s posted on the internet, but that could be from a desire to have certain pieces seen, and they are all posted for the sake of a chronology of development, or a timeline of ideas. Not all writing has an audience. I just think that’s a bit of a reach.

Why doesn’t it “qualify as such?”

As much as I hate to feed the troll – what is your deal?

Most of my nonfiction writing involves me (Paul, the guy writing) as the subject, either directly – because it’s a story about me – or indirectly – because I want to relate whatever it is I’m writing about to my own experience. In this way, writing is then a therapeutic exercise; I’m trying to understand my place in the world and all that.

I think most ~creative~ writing is like this.

As it turns out, some peoples’ writing is entertaining/enlightening/helpful to others. If that is the case, it is deemed “good”.

Thus – and this is only my opinion – lots of writing (of the creative nonfiction variety) is concentrated on ‘self’. But not all of it is good or relatable. I happen to think that Jenny’s is good/relatable, just as I think that about the writing of everyone on my site. But not everyone will agree. Whether lots of people agree will be what determines if we (individually – not as a group) make it as writers. Time will tell.

I don’t care if you eat Ben & Jerry’s, go see bad movies, or take yacht rides around the South of France.

Unlike eating Ben & Jerry’s alone in your apartment, writing is a dance that is supposed to involve two – a writer and someone you’re writing for. I didn’t mean the self-indulgence as a meta-criticism about your entire life, but that it detracts significantly from the quality of the pieces you’ve published here.

Rather than continue on a long and mean rant, I googled “self-indulgent writing”:

“Another breeding ground for self-indulgent writing is the assumption that everything you feel, everything you see, and every ‘insight’ you have must be brilliant because they seem so to you — and that the significance of everything you say must be just as obvious to the reader as it is to you.”

That’s a decent summary of your story about the shoes.