Writer Tweets #scribechat #wpfchat

Posted on September 1, 2010 | 3 Comments

Happy September!  🙂  It’s very windy outside, and I love it. I keep thinking of Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day. Wonderful.

I’m also thinking about writers and Twitter. Last night I had a meeting with some of my Writing Popular Fiction classmates via Twitter (#wpfchat), and Dr. Michael Arnzen led us in a discussion about the pros and cons of Twitter for authors. It was pretty interesting.

Twitter has always been fun for me. I use the Echofon app on my iPhone, and I use Tweetie on my Mac. I like to stay in touch and read what other friends and writers are working on.

I’ve also used Twitter in a couple of interesting ways.

First was #tots, which I did with Brian Feldman. We rewrote part of Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew as a Twitter conversation between several character accounts, and Brian posted those tweets live.

Then I worked on The Creepy Luny Inn Radio Adventure Show, where I encouraged listeners to vote via Twitter on what should happen next week.

Both experiments have been a lot of fun.

Our discussion last night showed me that writers have different views of Twitter. The group shared thoughts about the pros of these 140-character updates, including…

  • A way to connect with readers
  • A way to connect with agents
  • A way to connect with distant critique partners

Then the group shared thoughts about the cons of Twitter, including…

  • Time suck!!!
  • Inappropriate tweets
  • Loss of mystique

Finally, we shared useful writing hashtags with one another. In case you’re interested, here they are:

#askagent
#scribechat
#storycraft
#scifichat
#ufchat
#yalitchat
#querychat
#askeditor
#pubtip

So, do you use Twitter? Is it a great way to connect, or is it just another time suck? What are your favorite writing/reading hashtags?

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3 responses to “Writer Tweets #scribechat #wpfchat”

  1. Lia Keyes | September 2, 2010 at 7:09 pm | Reply

    Thanks for the mention of #ScribeChat and the informative post about the ways writers use Twitter! I’m intrigued by your comment that a possible disadvantage of social media transparency is a loss of mystique. What do you think the ramifications of a loss of mystique might be for writers?

    • irenelpynn | September 2, 2010 at 7:43 pm | Reply

      Lia, I enjoy following #ScribeChat! 🙂 Thanks!

      Regarding the mystique, that was actually another poster’s comment during the chat I mentioned, so I can’t really speak for her thoughts. However, I do think that a few authors develop a Mysterious Author persona that some readers tend to like. Perhaps social networking can dull that a bit, making the writer seem less like the God of Cool Worlds and more like just another Internet friend.

      That said, it’s fairly clear that I’m accessible through social networking. 🙂 I also often tend to prefer writers who at least blog occasionally, though I understand that that can be difficult to do when deadlines approach!

  2. Pingback: TOPIC: Does Social Networking Kill The Author Mystique? — THE SCRIBECHAT REVIEW

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