Man is least himself when he talks in his own person.

Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.

I don't know, Oscar Wilde, I just don't know.

 In some cases, maybe. I know when I was working with children who had special needs, some of them found it much easier to communicate using puppets. Direct interaction with another person was too intense for them.



...and when I'm in my work persona, that's a kind of mask I wear - Caroline, the confident and efficient freelance writer - but of course, it's part of who I am even though it might not be who I am INSIDE at that moment.

Give me a mask and...? I can put on an act. THAT'S what I think.

I am least myself when I talk in my own person? Resoundingly NOT TRUE. Everything I do with my (own) writing, at the moment, involves me struggling to take off the familiar and protective masks that conceal my identity.

Well, that's successfully demolished Oscar Wilde. KERSPLAT. The importance of being earnest, eh?

These thoughts are going round in my head because, for a commission, I'm trying to write using characters someone else has created. I'm not finding it easy. These characters are so unremittingly GOOD. Myself, I don't do good, not JUST good, anyway.

It's like writing with one hand tied behind my back.It's like communicating through puppets or whilst wearing a mask. And what comes out is not the truth.