I have had a love-hate relationship with Twitter right from the start. Its ephemeral and impermanent nature is both a draw (no obligation to understand context or scroll back for days!) and a drawback (everything exists in the void!). I initially joined to assist in my search for agents, and then I stayed because of the thriving writing community.
But while Twitter’s writing community is a good place to start, and very useful (it’s how I found out about Sirens and ConFusion and where I find all my agent sibs), it’s certainly not everything. It’s like the enticing display in the shop window – all cupcakes and glitter, but with very little substance. And as delicious as they may be, one cannot exist on cupcakes and glitter alone.
Alas, my personality is such that if the cupcakes and glitter are right there, then I will attempt to subsist on them anyway despite all of my knowledge and experience to the contrary. I am not very good at moderation.
So I’m going to give Twitter up entirely. Well, at least for the next 46 days. Aka, for Lent*.
It’s not like I’ll be bored. I have the draft zero for Book Three to complete by April and I’d been planning/hoping/dreaming to also get the synopsis written by then, too. This will give me a chance to focus and see if Twitter really has been sapping my creative energy as much as it has been sapping my time.
I also intend to recommit to blogging/reading blogs. I grew up on LiveJournal (gasp!) and enjoyed the community born and grown there, fueled by longer posts about everyday minutiae. I migrated to WordPress over the years and have likewise enjoyed the community here. There is far less glitter, but a considerable amount of honest sandwiches. I miss the longer form, the context, the gritties. Twitter has allowed for longer tweets, but it’s still a forum for Public Displays of Being Clever.
This is not intended as a screed or rant against Twitter. It has its uses and I fully intend to return to all the glitter and cupcakes. But in the meantime, I need to step back, breathe, reconsider, and refocus.
Hopefully, that means I’ll get to see more of you guys here. ❤
* I’m not Catholic, but the idea of occasionally giving something up that you feel you can’t live without is a good exercise, IMNSHO.
K. A. Doore 