If you haven’t already, please read the introduction post. That will give you context for this page.
That I am verbose should not be a surprise to you, dear reader. Nor is it something I imagine you’d be wont to dispute. And I could only keep a straight face whilst denying it because I’ve been known to do some acting.
When I’m having a conversation, I really do try to keep a handle on my verbosity, because I don’t want it to overwhelm the conversation.
When I’m speaking from notes or when I write, I don’t strive for verbosity, and I do edit things more than once. But I will use as many (or as few) words as I think necessary to say what I need to say. I am a writer. I have written both creatively and in assorted business contexts and have been paid to do it. I’ve been praised for that work. So, yes, I think I’m somewhat okay at sorting out how much needs to be said to express my ideas.
I have turned in papers, when I was at Uni, that were far shorter than classmates’ papers because I felt I’d adequately fulfilled the assignment in fewer words. And high marks on those papers suggest I was right.
But in a world where it seems everyone expects communication to be kept to 140 characters or fewer, the fact that I happily go on for paragraphs or pages is regularly ill-received. I might be frustrated, but I’m definitely not ashamed.
Most of my few closest friends have, at some point or other, engaged in massive emails or chats with me. And I love that my friends love words. And it seems we’ve all felt those big word exchanges were an awesome part of the relationship.
And I have a soft spot in my heart for my guitarist who, among other things, once told me (after another bandmate complained about how long my emails were) that he knew I was careful with words and only saying what I thought needed to be said. Bless.
The bottom line is that I’m not likely to stop or to apologise for being verbose…and you probably want to find someone else to communicate with if that’s a problem.
(Though I’d guess some people think I’m actually too brusque in certain situations. Can’t win. Not even going to try. Still not apologising. Still not ashamed.)
Cross-posted to the Not Ashamed section of my site (so that it’s all tidy).