It's true. I am a Twitter convert. Not that long ago, Twitter was a social media tool that was very far out of my comfort zone. How does one "tweet" to strangers? And I had to figure out how to use a "hashtag".
But I persevered and I'm glad I did. If there is one thing I've learned in the past few months, writers have to tweet. Twitter is the place where all aspects of writing come together: publishers, agents, bloggers, published authors and those aspiring to be published authors. Publishers and agents tweet about what they are looking for in a project or query. Writers tweet book suggestions and writing advice.
And contests! There are pitch contests galore. And while it's not easy to condense my entire manuscript into a 140 character pitch, it is a great exercise that every writer should do with each manuscript they write. There is something about having to weed through the characters and plot twists, to find the simple words that summarize the entire story. It is a road that leads to clarity and purpose.
And I found my Twitter sprint group! There is a group of writers, that gather at their computers every Friday night. And in thirty minute segments, they write and write and write. When the 30 minutes is up, they report word counts. It begins on Friday night, U.K. time, and at some point changes off to a U.S. group. If I wanted to, I could even wake up early on a Saturday and catch the end of the U.S. sprints in the morning. (But that would require waking up early, and therein lies the problem.) I used to be a closet Friday night writer, but now I don't have to be.
And let's not forget my ghost groups. I love ghost stories. I always have, they fascinate me. I love ghost stories so much that I write my own. And on Twitter, I can follow a plethora of paranormal research groups, all in once place.
As Facebook is the social media tool for family and friends, Twitter is the tool for networking. Especially within my particular passions. And I am happy to be a convert! @NCTFowler
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