Regarding your answers to question 4 and especially 5, I wrote a long post about that very subject before you friended me that you may have not seen. See here.

I wasn't on LJ at the time, so I've only just seen the post myself -- thank you for linking to it!

I found, myself, that the early years of receiving compliments on my writing were sort of hard because I never knew what to say back. I mean, beyond Thank You, or I'm glad you enjoyed it, but they seemed so very formal to me, and I'm not terribly formal otherwise. And yes, it's probably the only time I run out of words <wry g>.