My diaries were written primarily, I think, not to preserve the experience but to savor it, to make it even more real, more visible and palpable, than in actual life. For in our family an experience was not finished, not truly experienced, unless written down or shared with another.
–Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Bring Me a Unicorn (1971)

This quote is in honor of Web Writers Weekend Journal Conference in Austin, which begins this afternoon. I’m looking forward to getting to know the many people whose online journals and weblogs that I read. The Internet community of writers is a fascinating one. Relationships span continents. We share opinions, debate, and entertain readers with ordinary life stories told well. We come to know aspects of many writers more deeply than their “real life” folks might. We become attached. We extend. We visit each other. We send gifts and snail mail. The Internet is invaluable to writers — it provides an opportunity for expressiveness and community that is most suitable to the introspective and sometimes solitary person.