Yet I felt frustrated at the lack of opportunity to develop my own writer's voice. Thus, I filled in my spare time posting in online conferencing systems like The Well and The River. There, I felt I was taking part in a new form of literature. I never got paid, and relatively few people read my posts, but my discourse mingled with that of others I respected, building a community of words and thoughts with a compelling life of its own. I gradually realized that posting and ghosting are flip sides to each other.
Posts are fiery, dynamic, self-conscious.
And both grew increasingly respectable through the '90s. Meanwhile, my peers and I set up Web sites and added articles, like so many interactive small-press magazine publishers. The ease and convenience should have been warning signs. I soon found I was so busy ghosting and posting, I had little time for my own work. Esther Dyson has noted that, as the sheer quantity of media explodes on the Internet and elsewhere, the competition for people's attention will also explode.