we shall learn to twitter (tweet?)

I didn’t jump on the Twitter bandwagon for the longest time. I’d assumed it was for professional people, you know, people who work in offices? And here I am, stay-at-home mommy/48% novelist, covered in snot and food and other questionable substances for most of the day. But then, let’s remember, I am also (and have been for about seven years now!) a pretty hardcore blogger chick! I love social media! So why not Twitter?

Twitter is fun, of course. You can follow whoever you want! I’m following John Mayer, *swoon*. It feels a little bit ridiculous, but if you check out his page, you’ll see that probably about two-and-a-half million other women have the same idea, lol!

I’m also following Ingrid Michaelson, who is equally adorable and just an interesting person all around, in addition to her musical genius. I wanted to tweet to her to say that I am enjoying her new album, Everybody, very much, but then I got shy and didn’t, lol! She probably wouldn’t have seen it anyway with her 30,000 followers.

I considered giving up twitter this week, in honor of NaNoWriMo, and an attempt to put more of my time to good use, but I failed miserably. Twitter is just so useful! I use my twitter feed basically like a free-form open journal – if Dylan says something cute, or does something infuriating, if I have half of a thought I want to share, something that doesn’t quite measure up to a whole blog entry, or something that might turn into a blog entry later.

It’s nice to have voices answering back during the days, when most times, it’s just me and this three year-old. (Believe me, Dylan answers back! But not exactly in the capacity a functional adult needs.)

Twitter is, if anything, helping me embrace the professional side of my chosen “career.” I’m finding all these other writers freely swapping ideas and articles, and just generally talking about their days. Today, for example, I found this very eye-opening article in my Twitter feed, on the profits of a best-selling book. Or lack thereof, to be precise. (Not that this should surprise us…)

But these are all people writing and publishing their work, and I feel privileged to sort of “stand in the same room” with them, and listen to what they have to say.

These are two I found to start (I’ve only been at this a couple weeks). Both are accomplished authors who freely share an abundance of information and thoughtful blog posts out of the kindness of their hearts:
@aswinn, blog: Allison Winn Scotch.
@escottwrites, blog: Elizabeth Scott.
Both of whom I probably found via Nova, @novaren, who writes her own very useful blog. Nova who I found via Courtney, I think. Do you see how this works? 😉

But the best thing about Twitter is that it’s linked from one person’s page, to another, to another. Most people keep their tweets open, so if you find something interesting, you just start following. It feels a little voyeuristic to start, but I think most people tweet as a sort of open experience – there is also an option to have your tweets kept private and viewed by friends only.

So, I’m on twitter, and I’m enjoying it very much! Come join me if you want 🙂