Writing is weird.

I suppose it requires something of a suspension of ones own self-consciousness in order to present your work to strangers be it writing, painting, music, etc. But unlike music or painting where the experience is transposed in whole cloth from the subject to the observer, narratives are a more engaging experience by nature. You are asking the audience to sit down and accept the rules and conditions of a hypothetical scenario so that you can then pantomime an alternative reality to them. This means that somewhere exists a fine line between the curated and cohesive tour of a sensible narrative, and a chaotic safari into the string-connected conspiracy theory cork board of your plot points. If you fail to maintain the illusion, the spell breaks and the audience is left confused while you prattle on about subjects and circumstances that you have failed to engage them with. Hopefully the balance is such that the narrative is structured but interesting, and that when it finally comes time to involve a third party into the mildly indulgent act of telling them a story, I stand in front of a work that is worthy of the courage that had to be summoned in order to share it.