Engaging Twitter

I joined Twitter about a month ago. And honestly, I was so lost. For awhile I hung out, followed people I already knew, waited for someone to follow me. Nothing was happening. I started tweeting. Nobody was reading them except me. So I abandoned Twitter.

I'd check in every once in awhile and see if anyone had left me a message, or was following me. Nope. Nothing. I couldn't even figure out how to find people. If a friend joined and started following me, I could reciprocate. But I couldn't initiate. Me=technologically stupid.

And then I noticed that one person I followed would put this weird little thing at the end of their tweet: #amwriting. I thought, "Huh. That's kind of cool. I'm writing too." So I put it at the end of my tweet. The next thing I know, people are contacting me! Sending me messages and even following me!!!! I went from seven followers to twenty-five in five days, but who's counting?

What happened, I wondered??? I looked carefully at that tweet I'd made that attracted so much attention. The '#amwriting' was in blue font. I clicked it. With a gasp and a flash of light, I was transported to a world of beings who were writing. Writing and chatting and congratulating and encouraging.

For those of you who are Twitter savvy, you know I stumbled upon a hashtag. And that hashtag led me to a chat group. I joined a chat. By doing so, I made friends.

Totally awesome!

I had no idea how I did that. And then I noticed the hashtag #wordgoal. And the hashtag #litchat. And #wordathon.

Peoples! Twitter can be fun!!!

I'm feeling more Twitter confidant now. I'm exploring new avenues of expression. In honor of this, I'm going to search out that little bluebird icon and put it on my blog. I'm not sure how that works, but I'll figure it out.

Sequel Stats:
today's goal: 58,163
actual: 58,211
tomorrow's goal: 60,211

Bom dia!

Yawn. What a perfect Saturday morning. I'm sitting in my bed. My 3-year-old is at my feet, watching "Little Einsteins." My 1-year-old is on the floor playing with his firetruck. It's so nice to be with them. Such wonderful, sweet little people.

We were up late last night. Our extremely patriotic neighbors launched firecrackers until after midnight. Is that even legal??? I let Jacen sleep with me. He was scared. Except he doesn't really sleep. He just kind of...tosses.

So Mark is in the Army and I canceled our dental insurance last month. I checked our bank account yesterday--something I hate doing, b/c I always expect us to be overdrawn!--and they charged us our premium! Well, I about had a tizzy. And it was Friday night and there's nothing I can do about it! I hate that. I'm one of those people who has to take care of it RIGHT NOW, make that phone call and get it resolved RIGHT NOW. Now I have to wait until Monday! Grrr.

I think I'm supposed to make a post in my writer's blog. something intellectual about writing. I spent most of last night rewriting chapter 5 of Branca, my fantasy novel. Turns out Claude's point of view wasn't working for me. Or Evan's. Or Maitle's. Okay, so I had about 50 points of view in this novel. Yikes! I'm learning. I'm a better writer than I was. So I'm cutting it down to four points of view. Maybe five, but probably just four. That's some major rewriting!

Oh, and thanks to Vicky, I joined Twitter. I'm waiting for my fans to flock to me by the dozens now.

If you have a chance, check out my other blog. I share it w/ several other writers, and we are full of good advice for your writing process. http://smblooding.blogspot.com/