04.09.09
New feed: @fictiondaily
TECH THURSDAY
Can’t help myself. I started a Twitter feed for Fiction Daily … you can find it by going to @fictiondaily … it serves up “bite-sized bits of fiction each day.”
Terrified of the Twitterati: Yours truly
Of course I’m wondering how to use it. As I’ve found with Facebook, my status updates are mind-numbingly boring. So I have two Twitter feeds … @marionpb … @fictiondaily … and with all these forums I worry I’m just wasting everyone’s time with mundane thoughts.
Still, I’ve jumped in with both feet. These so-called “new platforms” are valuable places for fiction and so-called literature. Fiction has always been, well, everywhere. From the first days of the printing press fiction has been there … what is the Bible if not a great book of stories? Fiction serves print, which feeds fiction …from tabloids to magazines to books.
Now we have the Internet and fiction will be a part of it. I just can’t get an idea of the right voice. Casual, immediate. Chatty. A perfect place for fiction!
Yet, it seems my @fictiondaily posts come off as pretentious! Trying to say something profound in 140 characters comes across as uppity.
A writer desires nothing more than to be heard. Now, we’re heard, but what will I say @fictiondaily?
I’ve thought about posting single lines of a short story … single lines from the novel … or creating a new novel just on Twitter.
I’ve also wondered if I could start a thread for a novel everyone could participate in. It could be called @greenvillencnovel or something else.
So here I am, floundering around with these new platforms and trying to find a suitable voice … and yet still trying … wherever there are people and voices, there a writer should be, too.
Gene-o said,
April 9, 2009 at 7:34 am
The NYTimes ran an article a couple of weeks ago about how to post a high-quality Tweet. Maybe a search of the online archives would turn it up? My print version is long gone to the recyclers.
Marion said,
April 9, 2009 at 7:36 am
Ha! I struggle to make a meaningful blog … I have no idea how to write a meaningful Tweet for @fictiondaily. Still working on it.
Will look for the NYT article online … and Tweet a link to it!!