So, Tweet already, you Twit!!

Yeah, this is a couple days late.  And living thousands of miles away and thousands of feet above the eastern seaboard, I have no real excuse.  Except,well, doggonit, Twitter just really confuses me. Or to be more accurate it really confused me until I did something of a crash course. In the interest of full disclosure, I actually {blush} bought “Twitter for Dummies,” the pocket book edition. Yup, that’s me, a Twitter dummy.  And of all things I actually do sort of understand Triberr. How silly is that?

I’m the same person who flunked Chemistry in high school cause I couldn’t memorize the table of elements.  That’s right, I had NO problems with epic poems, with Shakespeare, even with my part in Gaslight.  But I could not get past Oxygen, Hydrogen, ummmmmmmm, nope, still wrong.  Sigh.

Seems like, when I take an aversion to learning something I just plain do not pick it up.  No idea why.  Maybe it’s the family curse of stubbornness.  Or maybe it’s just sheer cussedness. Whatever, I’m a failure at Chemistry, and was nigh on a failure at Twitter. Now, I can sort of maybe see failing Chemistry, at least for a Liberal Arts major. Okay, so I wanted to be a veterinarian, and the chem flunk talked me out of it, not to mention having to be nice to the dog owners.

But Twitter?  Seriously?  Well, obviously I had some sort of problem since it’s held me up from my Monday Promo Tips post.  And it’s not like I haven’t had a boat load of help with Twitter. In fact the break through was during a recent workshop with Kayelle Allen, one of my new idols.  Kayelle suggested following Karen Cote, or Kristen Lamb or even her own tweets.  Hmmm. Okay, so what am I supposed to be seeing here?  It just seems like the same confusing short messages, along with ### and blue words.

It took a blog from Jenny Hansen about Hurricane Sandy Tweets to FINALLY drive the lesson home.  Twitter is nothing but fragments of thoughts shared among friends. Kind of like getting together after work to share what went on in your lousy or wonderful job.  Since you know these people, you don’t have to describe everyone in detail, you can say “Miss Short Skirts” or “Mr. Bad Combover” and ZIP instant recognition. In the same fashion, you type out ‘Went to Step Class’ or ‘Set up the Course’ and the people who have been following you know what’s coming next, so they click on that shortcut to giggle along with your story. Or maybe to commiserate with your aching behind.

Huh.  I can do that.  I can share ideas with people, maybe pass along their ideas (otherwise known as RT or retweet)  And I can remember from time to time to add those ### which are known as hashtags, and give your tweet a bit more identity.  So if you add #MYWANA to your tweet, you’re linking your message to the We Are Not Alone concept of Kristen Lamb.  And that’s a pretty cool place to be, I’m thinking.

So, tomorrow morning starts NaNo, that month of writing dangerously. or at least furiously. I’m in this year. I’ve made a commitment to block out at least one book, along with finishing edits on one of the stories dragged out from under the bed.  That’s what writers do, you know.  They write.  Rewrite. Edit. {{gulp}} Submit.  When they’re not discussing the fate of the world in 140 characters or less.