Sunday, December 13, 2009

The Twitter Challenge

About a month ago I said to myself, 'Didn't you sign up for Twitter a while back? Were you ever planning on actually using it?' So I started using it - and 'using' is a frighteningly apt word, because I am now certifiably addicted. It's a wonder I have any followers, because I tweet so much and when I do, they're invariably about one of five topics:

1. Coffee
2. Me saying I shouldn't be on Twitter
3. Me saying I haven't got anything done yesterday/today/in my lifetime because of No. 2
4. Space stuff
5. Self promotion. (See here and here.)

On Friday, the following exchange occurred after a particularly ferocious day of tweeting on my part, and so the challenge was set by Brian, AKA The New Author.



I wondered how I could possibly get through my weekend without informing two hundred or so relative strangers about my every move. How could it be done? Would I survive? Would they survive? Would I be missed in the Twitterverse? I said to myself that mental notes on things of importance that occurred over this 48 hour No Twitter period could be made and then tweeted about Monday morning, if need be. But with more than a few seconds of hindsight, I've realized that I'm really quite boring. It's 1.45pm on Sunday afternoon and my mental notepad is blank, except for a messy scrawl near the end that says, 'Oly to win.'

What I really have missed is being able to retweet the interesting tidbits the people I follow tweet. (If you're not on Twitter, I apologize for that sentence.) And before you all start saying, 'But how do you know what they're tweeting if you're not on Twitter?', the challenge was not tweeting - whether or not I could quietly lurk was never specified. So I lurked. And here are some of the retweeting opportunities that I've missed:

- An inspirational quote (that could be for aspiring published authors) from Michael Flatley, "Whenever I hear 'it can't be done' I know I'm close to success" tweeted by @PositiveDoing
- More bad Walt Disney World monorail news: A power outage leaves guests stranded on the monorail system for two hours. (Tweeted by @MintMickey)
- Really good editing tips from Blood Red Pencil, tweeted by @InkWellHQ
- Bubble Cow have set up a Facebook fan page (@BubbleCow).

Phew. I feel SO MUCH better now.


Anyways, my big hope for this Twitter-free weekend was that I'd make some significant progress with my rewriting of my novel's first draft which, right now, is supposed to be on an agent's To Read pile gathering dust. I'm on the home stretch, technically speaking, hurtling towards the third act, but I'm just not going as quick as I have been in the past. (The quickness was undoubtedly induced by going to a little cottage by the sea for two months, but whatever.) So today I've taken the entire first draft out of its lever arch cage, shuffled it a bit, had a flick through and now I intend to make two piles: the already revised pile and the yet to be done pile. Hopefully the size of one will spur me on to make my way through the other.

That's the plan, anyway. Coffee anyone?

9 comments:

ITALIAN POLICEMAN said...

I arrived here just surfing.
Congratulations on Your nice site and best wishes from Italy

Catherine Ryan Howard said...

Thank you! :)

Unknown said...

Hi Catherine :)
Thank you for the fun post.
Happy Holidays!
RKCharron

Catherine Ryan Howard said...

Happy Holidays to you too! Thanks for stopping by. :)

Rebecca Brown said...

Well done, nearly at the end of the weekend. Been quiet on Twitter! Good luck.

Catherine Ryan Howard said...

I'm going to assume it was only quiet on Twitter because I was missing!! :) I've only a few hours to go now...I can make it!

Anonymous said...

LOL, that was a fun post. It looks like you were productive this weekend. Now, are you ready to get tweeting again?

Catherine Ryan Howard said...

Brian, I have already started. I got up early this morning especially so I could tweet! :)

Donal Merrick said...

Yes, i'll have some as always(regardless of if your making some) ...sorry for this most unconstructive comment, it was not intended to take away from the pestige of this blog, however I will have some of your virtual coffee thanks.