It's the first Wednesday of the month, which means it's time for IWSG, the Insecure Writer's Support Group, and I've triple checked this month to make sure I've got the letters in the right order.
I've been around the blogosphere less this past month and the blame falls mostly on one source: Twitter (@hektorkarl if you want to find me). I know Twitter gets bashed as a waste of time, and it can become flooded with spam, but I actually find it a great place to connect with other writers/people. And whereas as blog time tends to eat into other types of writing/reading/creating, Twitter can be fit into the cracks in one's schedule. It constantly flows. Surprising conversations erupt. Sometimes news breaks.
Finally, no matter the time of day, there's always someone on Twitter eager to write. It's peer pressure made to order. Just find a favorite hashtag (I like #1k1hr, but there are many out there), and someone will keep you honest with your goals.
So there's my excuse for the lack of blogging. (The blogging will likely pick up again when I get in the mood to get mythical again, but feel free to search me out on Twitter in the meantime.)
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Anyone else find themselves drifting toward Twitter? (Twitter haters are welcome to pipe up as well.)
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Twitter has lots of interesting possibilities, and I use it for work, but I just don't have the time to keep up with it right now on the writing side.
ReplyDeleteBut tweets take less time than blog posts! :)
ReplyDeleteI agree--it takes less time to Tweet than to blog. However, I find myself so quickly sucked in, that I have stopped checking it except for maybe once a day. I used to think the Internet was the great black hole time suck. I think it's been replaced by Twitter...
ReplyDeleteI will start yelling at you to focus then. PROBLEM SOLVED!
DeleteWhat's interesting is I get a lot more done when I'm also on Twitter. I realize I tend to write - pause - write - pause -write - pause anyway. My pauses are just me looking at Twitter now.
DeleteYES! I have the pause thing as well, especially with Scrivener's scene-based format.
DeleteI like all social media platforms, Twitter can be great it has some good chats from different writing groups. I'm calming down on my blogging too, it does take a lot of time.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. And I think all social media requires some degree of 'pacing' to keep from getting overwhelmed by it.
DeleteI love Twitter! It's incredibly useful to get in touch with new people, break the ice so to speak. :)
ReplyDeleteVery true.
DeleteWell, I definitely Tweet more often these days, though that has more to do with orders from my publisher than anything, but even still, I truly do not get Twitter. If I'm gonna use social media, I'd rather Facebook. It's more personal, like committed sex, whereas Twitter is more like casual sex. Just not my thing. But to each his own!
ReplyDeleteSo how many @ messages do I get a day before I become a giant slut?
Delete"orders from my publisher than anything"
I do think I'd have a hard time using it as an effective selling tool.
I have been distracted with Twitter lately too. I am not sure why. I don't even think I use it to any great benefit. I like that the majority of people will only read your tweets if you actually mention them, when I want to say something but maybe not to everyone, I can. My real friends always respond! I hate facebook - it should be renamed brag book.
ReplyDelete"it should be renamed brag book."
DeleteI think all social media (and perhaps most forms of communication) are prone to this.
"I have been distracted with Twitter lately too"
Maybe I'll see you around, then!
I never know what to write on Twitter. But I have been trying to get on it more.
ReplyDeleteOne way to get started is to just respond to what other people are saying.
DeleteI love how you call us "peer pressure."
ReplyDeleteI get so much more writing done when I know you guys are on Twitter and ready to do the #1h1k with me. It feels a lot less like work and a lot more fun. It kind of throws the whole "writing is a solitary thing blah blah blah." I don't know what I would do without you and Claudie and Caitlin and Tricia to Tweet at while I work.
You guys also help me to make my writing a lot more punchy.
I don't know if it's the most efficient manner, but seeing other people writing gets me going, and makes me a lot less likely to waste the time browsing the internet, or to make an excuse for why I should wait to start until later.
DeleteI second everything the both of you said. The internet can be so shiny and distracty that having you guys around helps me focus. It also makes those re-writes not so agonizing.
ReplyDelete"It also makes those re-writes not so agonizing."
DeleteYeah, it can really help with those, because they don't benefit from the excitement of being able to log large word counts and such.
Twitter is a ceaseless source of astonishing new people, but blog hopping helped me discover most of my current blogger friends :). Kisses.
ReplyDeleteBlog hopping is great too, though keeping with large numbers of blogs can be difficult.
DeleteTwitter is my favorite distraction! I get lost in reading celebrity & news tweets. I mostly tweet shameless self-promotion links to my articles, though I do a fair share of retweets too.
ReplyDeleteI like the real-time nature of it, like watching live TV news, well... for the ones that are live-tweeting anyway.
So many folks are on auto-tweet, it feels like watching re-runs of cable news shows. Hashtags are great & I've started list-making too. After I got more than 10 followers, reading the timeline is overwhelming. So I catchup with folks latest tweets by reviewing my various lists.
This is really interesting. I've avoided the whole Twitter thing, mostly because I thought I'd be tweeting into an abyss and no one would tweet back. But the way you're describing it, you tweet people, they tweet baci, and you become part of a community chat, which sounds really nice.
ReplyDeleteComparing twitter to a blog, I think it depends on what you are after. I really think a blog is great for people to share their thoughts and their writing. It's great writing practice; it can generate ideas and creativity. As a way to outreach to potential readers, it also has great appeal. It can help you build a network, but you're right, it's very time consuming if you are going for a large number of connections.
I could totally see how twitter (and maybe Tumblr) would be better for networking. So is commenting on popular blogs. Much more focused, much less time intensive.
So, I think it depends on what you are looking for. And the nice thing is, you can do everything and decide what balance of time you will give to each.
I resisted twitter for so long, but it turns out, like you said, to be totally awesome for striking up conversations with strangers and networking. I've met all kinds of writers, book bloggers, and industry professionals through twitter. But yes, it's very distracting to the writing process when there's so much good stuff on there!
ReplyDelete