A media-savvy novelist friend recently started Twittering. So far his updates express the confusion a lot of people have at first with this “micro blogging service” that’s like a cross between haiku and Facebook.
Basically, he’s saying: “Okay, I’m here… What is this for? Hello… I’m still Twittering, but still not sure why…”
My own history with Twitter is a geological record of my still-evolving comprehension of this wonderously simple platform.
At first I thought it was personal communication for the chatty nerds who podcast endlessly about techno trivia and all seem to know each other.
Then it seemed to be the cool place where the conversation had moved from Facebook – the latest cyber hangout, like a fashionable new bar in town. (I had experienced this before, when all the wits on my favorite forum deserted it for Facebook.)
Next, I began to resent it. It was a pain in the ass: so much irrelevency: “I’m sitting down to lunch. rice and beans” or “thinking of moving my chair” (the video Twitter Whore captures this hilariously). And along with that, the depressing prospect of having to do the same – be tweeting all day long. What a drag.
One day I overheard a guy in a Starbuck’s trying to explain Twitter to his girlfriend:
“Twitter is…anything you want it to be.”
“But what do you DO…” she said, with her face all red and tensed up.
“Anything you want,” he repeated, like a Zen master. “You have a 140 character canvas. Do anything you want with it.”
So then, Twitter was merely an empty box, saying, “fill me with 140 characters.” Nothing more. Not “what are you doing now….and now….and now?” Not “where are you now?” or “what’s your latest thought?”
Just 140 characters. Period.
Then Bryan Clark launched the first Twitter writing contest on Copyblogger. I’ve enjoyed writing micro fiction over the years, and I love working within extreme limits. And because Twitter is a “social” medium, you’re almost guaranteed at least a small readership. Perfect.
Except I knew that if I let it go at that, I’d be leaving myself out of the loop. When Darren Rouse, a blogger I had followed for years on Problogger, started Twitip, a new blog devoted entirely to Twitter, I knew my quest wasn’t over.
Here’s where I stand at the moment. Having used Twitter for minimalist social communication and as an artistic publication platform, I’m beginning to realize its professional value to me is as an adjunct to my blog. When I have a miscellaneous thought, discover a new blog or site, or something on a web page somewhere, there’s no temptation to clutter up my blog with it. If it’s only one or two sentences plus a link, it’s a tweet, so it goes to Twitter. That’s my plan, as of today.
What about you? What uses have you found for Twitter, assuming you use it? What difficulties do you have with it. Is Twitter the future? Or just another new bar in town?
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
A bar, yes! I love twitter. I don’t twit as much as I’d like, or read as many tweets as I’d like, but it’s fun. I like Facebook better, though, I think. Sometimes I update the same things in both places, sometimes different in each. I just do it. Some day, I’ll probably be more focused about it!
And f you want to be really nerdy about it, there are several apps out there that will change your Facebook status with your latest Twitter update or vice versa. I’m still waiting for the Twitter plugin that will pour me a drink every time I update.
I actually really like Twitter. Mostly I use it to tell my friends when I’ve blogged or write random cool things about my writing. I think it can be a great tool for writers as an accountability tool. If you have friends that care (or, even if you don’t) it’s a great way to say “I met my goal today/this week/this month”, which creates a sense of being accountable for reaching those writing goals.
And I loved the Twitter Whore video! Nice.
Having posted a novel at twitter at
http:// twitter.com/talkingcat I saw there is a different problem with comprehension in a
backward reading story. I needed to post a “real” version at http://pick2prod.com Much easier to read that way. The story was written by my late wife who would have loved the idea of publishing on twitter. But having said that, she would have also loved to figure the plot for a story that starts with the ending.
Twitter is great to write TO, because the 140 character limitation forces you to think fully about each step forward. But I agree it’s not an ideal way to read an extended narrative. A story that starts with the ending would still appear tweet by tweet, the opening last. Again, not good reading. Probably the best type of story to publish on Twitter would be one starting with an ending that’s actually the story’s beginning. Not to go Zen on you, I just mean a story that moves backward in time. I can think of a couple of recent novels that work that way: Martin Amis’s TIME’S ARROW, and Daniel Wallace’s RAY IN REVERSE, both nicely done but, for me, painful to read. I think the best way to post a draft on the web is to blog it in chunks–maybe a couple of chapters per post, with clear navigation links to make reading it in the right direction easy. Example: an novel I have in progress now: http://regeneratingjeff.com
The points that you made towards the bottom of your post are completely correct. Twitter is great for getting your target readership to visit your site/engage with you. It can be an extension of a blog or a place where you jot down all of your thoughts. Either way Twitter has proven to be an influential marketing tool.