To my hyper-connected New Media writer colleagues: Watch this wise video from the always-awesome Chris Brogan. In it, he talks about spending gobs of time on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook, and how that investment may pull folks away from other, more important endeavors.
My takeaway from Chris’ video is a brass-knuckled buzzkill for Twitter-enamored wordherders, but it’s one worth considering: Every sentence you post in the fleeting ether of Twitter and Facebook is one less sentence you’re dedicating to your creative work. If you’re serious about writing, completing, selling and publishing stories, the best home for your words and creative energy is always your work in progress.
Your creative project will have a permanence, meaning and impact that those tweets and status updates never will. Tweeting about writing isn’t writing. Tweeting critiques about others’ fiction doesn’t put more words on your own pages.
Social media networking sites do indeed provide wonderful places to converse about creativity — but don’t let their cozy, comfortable confines become a lullaby for your own creative efforts.
If you’re serious about completing your creative work, publishing it, and getting paid for it, now’s a good time to recommit yourself to those goals and funnel your words into the best home for them: your work in progress. The most resonant writing doesn’t have 140-character limits.
–J.C.
Well said.
Yeah this is a good recommendation. You do need to make sure that you’re spending your time where it will provide returns on your investment.
Though I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t point out that it’s ironic in some fashion that I read about this video (itself on a social network) on Twitter and that it was created by a guy I only know of through Twitter and who I only know as a blogger.
And of course this comment is in and of itself somehow taking away from my own writing.
While I agree with the sentiment of this I have to say that the evils of such social sites are not completely evil all the time. I think it comes down to the old adage, everything in moderation. If you spend all your time on Social Media, your work will never get completed. At the same time, if you never experience the world for being hyper-vigilant to your WiP, you’re missing out on everything the world has to offer. For all things a season.
@David: I appreciate your perspective, but contend that hyper-vigilance to your creative work is one of the few ways to ensure its completion and eventual success.
Hi JC,
I agree that spending too much time on social media is a bad thing, i.e. if you are not writing as well
BUT I think that authors do need to be active in social media to build an audience for their work. It also sounds strange coming from you, because I heard of you on Twitter, connected with you, listened to 7th Son, bought your books because of twitter.
I made no income from my books or writing before Twitter, but now I use a combination of writing, blogging, podcasting and twitter to make an income stream. I also have people who are interested in my novel because of social media. I have also met a fantastic community of people on twitter and consider them real friends (much as you did with the podcasting community)
So, it just has to be used in a good way i.e. I schedule a week’s tweets on SocialOOmph.com and then pop on occasionally to check replies. When I write, I log off all media.
Thanks, Joanna
@Joanna: At no point do I suggest anyone abandon their social networks of choice, or not use them to promote their work; I certainly haven’t.
I agree with this. I also find that when I focus on my work, I actually have plenty of time to tweet and facebook and do blog posts. There are some teeny-learning-curve things like Evernote (that I can access from all my computers, and click-to-save webpages) where I can assemble posts by throwing ideas into a note, store links, and whatnot, until I get a break and can dump it online. Dropbox would probably do the same for you if you’d rather just use a text editor or some other program like Tiddlywiki. I don’t have to stop what I’m doing and slip out of that ‘flow’ that good work creates.
I have found that if I am saying that Twitter and other social media are extensions of my work as a writer, focusing on my writing feeds them by structuring my time and generating content, while they never feed my writing.
I can definitely agree with this post. I’ve been gradually scaling back the number of feeds I read and the have nearly abandoned twitter altogether. My focus has changed from trying to keep up with the Joneses regarding social media and focusing on just the quality things that I find useful.
As a result I feel less stressed, more focused, better read and don’t feel as though I am missing out on anything.
Excellent video by Chris and great points by you. Thanks for sharing. I’ve been struggling with where to find time to fit my writing in. I’m primary caregiver during the day for a three month old, so that’s part of it. But I do need to remind myself that, rather than hop on Twitter or Facebook every time she’s taking a nap, I should try to get a paragraph written, or at least read a book.
You’ve given me something to think about. Thanks for that!