My friend Robin just reminded me of this lovely, lovely quote from The Elements of Style:

All writers, by the way they use the language, reveal something of their spirits, their habits, their capacities, and their biases. This is inevitable as well as enjoyable. All writing is communication; creative writing is communication through revelation — it is the Self escaping into the open. No writer long remains incognito.

It’s interesting.
I think it’s the opposite of what I believed when I started writing heavily as a teen.
I thought it would provide the perfect hiding place.
Incognito for all eternity.

But I guess not.
I think White’s right.
We reveal ourselves daily through our words.

Which, it turns out, is a relief and a pleasure.
Because who wants to walk around with a paper bag over her head anyway?

I’d trade intimacy for incognito any day…