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Twitter versus writer's block
Was in the midst of posting this question on the comment thread for a tumblr post by Tom, even though the question wasn't quite germane to the post. I suddenly realized the irony, or the opposite of irony - aptness? - that I was posting it there rather than here, so...
A question for Twitterers (Tweeters?): Since I'm a non-Twitterer who feels he's already lacking in time, what's the effect of Twitter on writer's block?
--"Writers block" is a flexible term here, since I write all the time but nonetheless will often block myself from particular types of writing, not because I don't want to do those types but because they don't feel right or safe or something. And by "types of writing" I don't mean writing style. It's more along the lines of my being a message-board guy more than a blog guy, and when I'm hanging around the blogs/livejournals it's way more natural for me to post on other people's comment threads than to post on my own blog. So maybe you could call this "blogger's block." What jumps out is that the people who are successful bloggers aren't better at initiating conversations and ideas than I am, but rather are the ones who treat their blogs/tumblrs/ljs as part of broader, invisible "Message Boards," their blogs being a part of an overall conversations. I can't get myself to feel that way, maybe because in my heart I don't believe that there are many good conversations out there.
But the problem isn't only or fundamentally where I post: The block is against following through on an idea etc. beyond the original impulse and after the audience for it seems to have dispersed. When I come up with an idea, narrative, analysis, etc. there's a first phase where the idea is hot and words are racing around my mind (and if all goes well getting down on paper or up on the Net, though that often doesn't happen), and then a second phase where it suddenly seems insubstantial or barren or not quite intelligible, where I'm either going to elaborate on it or it seemingly dies. This is a stage of fear and pain. And it is where I get distracted, where "responding to other people's posts" all of a sudden is a really inviting distraction. (The advantage of a message board thread on a topic is that sometimes other people are carrying the convo along, so we walk through this valley of potential death and on beyond it.) Of course, in getting distracted and in making responses to who knows what, I sometimes, without quite realizing it, actually pick up one of my inchoate ideas that I'd let "die," start elaborating on it in a different context, without my having gone into this context with that intention.
So, in regard to Twitter: in your experience, does it unlock your ideas, distract from them, both, neither (i.e., have no impact on your ideas one way or another)? Not that how it works for you would necessarily be how it works for me.
I'm not particularly thinking of joining Twitter, though I haven't excluded the possibility. I'm trying to take a shortcut, incorporating its lessons while not having to spend the time on Twitter learning 'em. Twitter would seem a particularly poor medium for elaboration and follow-through, but I expect it's also a poor medium for filibusters and obfuscation, so maybe good for hammering away at a particular question.
A question for Twitterers (Tweeters?): Since I'm a non-Twitterer who feels he's already lacking in time, what's the effect of Twitter on writer's block?
--"Writers block" is a flexible term here, since I write all the time but nonetheless will often block myself from particular types of writing, not because I don't want to do those types but because they don't feel right or safe or something. And by "types of writing" I don't mean writing style. It's more along the lines of my being a message-board guy more than a blog guy, and when I'm hanging around the blogs/livejournals it's way more natural for me to post on other people's comment threads than to post on my own blog. So maybe you could call this "blogger's block." What jumps out is that the people who are successful bloggers aren't better at initiating conversations and ideas than I am, but rather are the ones who treat their blogs/tumblrs/ljs as part of broader, invisible "Message Boards," their blogs being a part of an overall conversations. I can't get myself to feel that way, maybe because in my heart I don't believe that there are many good conversations out there.
But the problem isn't only or fundamentally where I post: The block is against following through on an idea etc. beyond the original impulse and after the audience for it seems to have dispersed. When I come up with an idea, narrative, analysis, etc. there's a first phase where the idea is hot and words are racing around my mind (and if all goes well getting down on paper or up on the Net, though that often doesn't happen), and then a second phase where it suddenly seems insubstantial or barren or not quite intelligible, where I'm either going to elaborate on it or it seemingly dies. This is a stage of fear and pain. And it is where I get distracted, where "responding to other people's posts" all of a sudden is a really inviting distraction. (The advantage of a message board thread on a topic is that sometimes other people are carrying the convo along, so we walk through this valley of potential death and on beyond it.) Of course, in getting distracted and in making responses to who knows what, I sometimes, without quite realizing it, actually pick up one of my inchoate ideas that I'd let "die," start elaborating on it in a different context, without my having gone into this context with that intention.
So, in regard to Twitter: in your experience, does it unlock your ideas, distract from them, both, neither (i.e., have no impact on your ideas one way or another)? Not that how it works for you would necessarily be how it works for me.
I'm not particularly thinking of joining Twitter, though I haven't excluded the possibility. I'm trying to take a shortcut, incorporating its lessons while not having to spend the time on Twitter learning 'em. Twitter would seem a particularly poor medium for elaboration and follow-through, but I expect it's also a poor medium for filibusters and obfuscation, so maybe good for hammering away at a particular question.
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the danger is distraction and time not spent on the thing: procrastination
but sometimes you need the distance
(another good tactic is talk the prob through w.my sister while she is feeding t!lly)
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The thing about Twitter, is it can do all of those things -- it really depends on what you do with it.
It can definitely facilitate the Invisible Message Board impulse, because it gives you the freedom to post absolutely anything, without worrying about developing it or making it interesting -- and then you'll find that those undeveloped, uninteresting things get responses. And those responses will help you turn those undeveloped, uninteresting things into developed, interesting things.
And the same time, Twitter gives me an excuse to not develop ideas or post them elsewhere. I mean, in the past I would have mulled over the Kelly Clarkson album, or Tinted Windows, or VV Brown, or "Behind Enemy Lines" till I figured out what I wanted to say about them on Livejournal -- but because I have Twitter, I just posted my 140-character initial impressions there, and left it at that.
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It encourages me to write Blackbeard posts because about 2/3 of that blog's audience is coming via Twitter. It encourages me to write about Twitter because I'm interested in the effects I'm seeing on it. It doesn't really encourage me to do anything else but I find it hugely stimulating in terms of the serendipity factor if nothing else (and also the stuff
I use it in a slightly unusual (for me) way, though: it's partly an experiment in seeing if I can network a bit more aggressively, and be proactive in making contacts and getting things done. I have always been a "let them come to me" type of person*, happy to publicise what I'm doing but not really push it (a distinction probably only real to me!). Because Twitter is so useful for my actual job I'm trying to take advantage of that element a bit more.
*the one exception being actively introducing myself to
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A question from a writer friend: does Twitter help cure writer's block?