Nobody really knows what works and what doesn't. Every workshop and book and article I've read does have one common thing that they say. Do what's comfortable you. Leave the stuff that makes you uncomfortable alone.
With that in mind, I am going to quit tweeting. I hate it. I actually really enjoy twitter. Also, it's apparently dangerous for you. I love reading what OTHER people are doing. I like Maureen's tweets and Nathan Fillion cracks me up. My life, however, feels boring to me when I try to tweet about it.
I don't know if it's the 140 character limit that keeps me from elaborating the way I like or if I'm just dull as yesterday's dishwater. My tweets fall flat even to my eyes and I'm predisposed to like me.
So that's it. I'm done. I'll probably retweet other people's stuff on occasions and maybe reply to people here and there, but no more self-generated tweeting. I'm done.
Is there anything that you decided you hated too much to keep doing even if a bunch of the other cool kids were doing it?
7 comments:
Oh my lord - I haven't even started Twitter - I know my life is not interesting enough for that stuff - or maybe I'm not funny or charming enough. Either way - not going there. Good for you for stopping before it made you crazy - honestly - that's something to be proud of. Stop before you go crazy.
I'm going to drift onto your promotion topic and post a link for the first day of my crazy blog tour - Christine D'Abo - http://christinedabo.com/blog/
come by!
I haven't tried Twitter yet either. I'm still getting used to My Face. I find I love reading everyone's blubs... but have no desire to post one.
I figure I'll try to change that going forward.
It really is a crazy kind of thing.
On a totally unrelated note I'm looking forward to Aarron Sorkin's new movie about Social Networking.
And Molly - loved your post on the blog. But I can't comment because of my blasted IT department blocking everything.
I do find twitter kind of fun-- sometimes--although I'm not very active on it. When I do read through my feed, it's like eavesdropping on other people's conversations and depending on what they're talking about, that can be fun.
I feel like my tweets are mostly about the weather and totally boring. And like many of these social networking things for authors... I think 99.9% of the people following me on twitter and facebook are other writers. I'm not sure there's a way to change that unless you're very famous...
What I've stopped doing is blogging. I used to have a very active blog. For a time, I got more hits on my personal blog than we did here on DWT, but I slowed down, then virtually stopped, and (surprise), my frequent readers disappeared.
My analysis is I used to use blogging like I now use social networking... to connect with my "coworkers" during the day. (Working alone is isolating.) And scanning the feeds on facebook or twitter is so much faster than reading daily blogs and writing a quick status update or tweet is WAY faster than writing a blog.
I do feel like I'm only posting to other writers. I mean, granted, most writers are readers, but still . . . I need to reach past that.
I might be going back into the "nothing makes any difference so I might as well do nothing and just write the books until no one will give me another contract mode." Or maybe it's PMS. I can't tell anymore.
I cannot imagine any point in my life where I could have anything interesting to twitter about more than once a week. Good for you for giving it a go.
I was hugely skeptical about the merits of twitter when I started ... but it was on the list of things I was 'required' to do. So I stuck it out, and I have to say I love it!
I've connected to lots of readers (not just writers) and met some fabulous people.
I was kinda the same with Facebook too... couldn't see the point, hate the stupid games. Preferred MySpace cos it was prettier!! But I've gotten used to it. Actually I now spend more time on Twitter and Facebook than Myspace.
I don't think twitter is about being interesting, I'm fairly random in my tweets, it's about connecting with others.
Just think of it as texting the world. (not scary at all!!!)
:)
Glad to hear about someone with positive experiences, Cat!
IMO both FB and Twitter are extremely easy ways to just make readers feel like they are connected to you.
I honestly don't know who is following me on either... But none of my books are out, yet, so no readers at this point. :) Hopefully at least a few potential readers... I can tell from watching other friends' replies that they are getting a lot of comments from readers. I think it's kind of cool.
At a talk last summer in DC, Ally Carter said she'd put out a tweet one night when she got to her hotel room, pondering whether or not to fork out the exorbitant minibar price for a bag of M&Ms. The next day, several teen girls showed up at her book signing with bags of M&Ms for her. So clearly she's got readers following her. :)
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