Know When To Shut The Tweet Up

I don't know what I'd do without Twitter. I love it. Plain and simple.

Maybe a slight exaggeration, but still, I do find Twitter helpful and fun. My Twitter message alert sings a cute little bird whistle, which reaffirms with each tweet, that my existence is relevant, nay, important. With every notice, I’m either favorited, retweeted, or followed. And boy does my ego love that!

 

 

But, I must remember why I got on Twitter in the first place. I wanted to learn craft, improve as a writer and meet other folks in the publishing world. But who should I follow? That's a question unique to each individual on the internet.

Before I follow anyone, I categorize them into one of the following general groups.

1.  Marketers/promoters (Not for me.)

2.  Writers (YES)

3.  Lost Ones (Some)

4.  Agents/Editors (Lots of these!)


I'm a good supporter of writers, and I try to retweet entertaining, informative or educational tidbits. And Twitter’s been super helpful with learning about contests, recent publishing related news and discovering agencies and specific agents.

Through Twitter, I’ve increased my knowledge and understanding of the publishing world, but most importantly, I've made new writer friends - most of whom are determined to improve and become published authors someday. 


 

But Twitter doesn’t help me write. It often distracts me. And I do not need any more distractions.

With seven children (two in diapers), my life already seems like a constant series of interruptions. I sure don’t need Twitter acting as that energetic friend who says, “Hey, let's go hang out. It’ll be fun!” Because, the problem is, hanging out on twitter is fun - but when I do, I don’t get any writing done.

Yes, along with its helpful potential, Twitter can be dangerous. Proceed with caution.

 

According to lots of sources, to become the writer I want to be, I've got to read and write - a lot. And I don’t think those sources are referring to reading and writing in my Twitter feed. (Although, to distill some thoughts down to 140 characters takes some skill, that’s probably not what will sell my first book.)

So, I'm afraid I'll have to battle the urge to jump on Twitter with any free time I have. If I can keep my focus on writing, Twitter becomes another tool in my arsenal for conquering the publishing world.


 

 

 

I'm sure everyone uses Twitter for different reasons, and I am a really big fan. But, I need to check myself and monitor my time on it. Since I’ve started my writing career later than most, I’m not about to let some cool new social media app hi-jack my writing potential. I want to learn all I can and write great books. I'd bet you do to.

So, I suggest that you follow these guidelines and --- uh, hang on a minute, my twitter notice just went off. I might be up to 17 followers! BRB!