@Cowboi
Any news about your paper?
Dear Lacey Lynne,
you're making me blush here, and feel free to contact me, I'd be happy as I love your postings too. But frankly, I don't like it myself when my posts get too long, however I can't seem to help myself there. Problem is, I don't think in words, but in pictures, and I need to translate them into words anyway for internet communication. (So you're totally right, I really don't think in words, phrases, sentences - you got me here!) Moreover, in my mind, I often see like diagrams and schemes filled with pictures, or many things interacting with each other and influencing each other. It's like 3-dimensional webs or snow crystals full of pictures which rotate, transform themselves and get more elaborate and detailed, and get more and more items and connections between the items the more I think or learn about a topic. They're a bit like screensavers or growing trees. In Real Life, when I discuss things with people or am asked to explain stuff, I often ask for a sheet of paper and a crayon to make schemes and drawings, sometimes it's very difficult for me to explain things without that visual help. (I'm curious to know how you think, Lacey Lynne.)
I need to put my "thought webs" into linear, ordered, structured text to make myself understood in forums, which is why my postings get long - I don't want to pick just one single item if it's strongly influenced by other things. But if I skip too much explanation of the connections, my stuff would read as confusing as if it had been written by Timothy Leary on LSD. (Scribbling diagrams and posting them here wouldn't be of much help either, I think.) Written text is step-by-step and therefore quite different from my "thought webs" at a given moment which then are simultaneous instead. I try to put the most important points in
bold where the most important items of my thought webs are seated, so it's a bit less annoying for my readers to get a fast glimpse of what I'm writing. But there's not much more I can do there right now.

Also, I am no native speaker, this is another reason why I make such long postings as I sometimes lack the words or expressions to get to the point fast, or I am afraid to get misunderstood so I rephrase some of my stuff. And I have to use the words I know and I read lots of scientific stuff in English, or I use French words and make them look English hoping that they'll work, so my vocabulary is kind of well... unnatural for a forum. Plus as a German native speaker, well Germans tend to make never-ending, horribly nested sentences as you can do that with German language without a problem, and I don't break down sentences in English as much as I should. All this makes my postings sound overblown, an effect I don't like but I hope it will get better over time as my English improves. I envy those who can rephrase my huge postings in three sentences and get to the point immediately, that's much better for forums anyway. My style would be better for blogs.