Tweeting on Twitter. There’s a lot of tweeness to overcome, and I struggle to overcome it. Lots of people are obsessive about Twitter and they swear by it. I’ve not reached that point but I’ve got past swearing at it – and am now thinking how best to relate to it.
As with all the new ideas released by the technology of the Internet, it’s easy to be bamboozled by the sheer fact of the technology. But new media are simply media. What they still need is not necessarily new technological capability but old craft facility. The important thing is that you write – and you have to get your message right.
Where Twitter seemed to me most appealing was the constraint of 140 characters per message. I like the need for compression that it demands (and that fits absolutely with the theme of 26 ways of looking at a blackberry). What put me off it was that this constraint hardly seemed to matter to people who tweeted in response to the standard “What are you doing?” question – “Just off to bed now” or “Could do with a coffee”. Banality seems to rule much of Twitter world. I’m sure it applies to me too but I do try to hit that 140 character constraint dead on.
Today in the Guardian I read an article about a singer/songwriter Gary Go who has used Twitter to write a song collaboratively with fans. http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/may/22/twitter-heart-shaped-balloon He’d photographed a Heart Shaped Balloon and posted it on Twitter. Fans then suggested lyrics 140 characters at a time. His comment was that the limit is “good training from a songwriting perspective in how to say what you want in fewer words”.
Hallelujah, as Leonard Cohen might have said but not on Twitter. The previous day I had celebrated the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s Sonnets by posting Sonnet 87 on Twitter. You can get about three lines of a sonnet in one Tweet of 140 characters. It was probably only me that found that interesting but I’m intrigued now by the possibilities of putting more poetry on Twitter – and possibly making a collaborative poem there. Anyone interested? Replies here or on Twitter.
Hi John
As you know, I’m Twitter mad. Point 1: Twitter must be the least ‘techie’ social medium there is. I’m very much not a geek, and I love it. Point 2: the banality is easily dealt with – just don’t follow the banal people.
More importantly, the creative possibilities of Twitter are being exploited by many people out there. I myself (ahem) do a silly rhyming-couplet Twitter at @tweetiverse. It’s not terribly good because I don’t give it enough time, but I’m trying.
There are loads of poetry tweeters, and story writers. I like @nickwarren’s tweet stories very much. And the Sunday Times journalist @mattrudd is doing ‘twitlits’ – stories made up of tweet-sized chapters. Less convinced about those, but it’s all grist to the mill.
There are also fun ‘memes’ running almost constantly. Today, I was taking part in ‘Disappointing Sci-Fi’ (http://bit.ly/h5gvm), which includes such titles as ‘Mission to Margate’ and ‘The Thyme Machine’.
One of Twitter’s strengths is its openness to everything from the most serious of news-gathering (e.g. the Mumbai attacks, or the Hudson plane crash) to the silliest and most trivial play.
I agree wholeheartedly about the constraints thing. (And am enjoying the book, by the way.) Having to keep to that 140 character limit is a quick reminder of how much writing can be safely – and beneficially – cut away, and how much, in fact, you can get into that tiny space.
Twitter is terrific fun, especially for writers. I encourage everyone to join in.
Twitter, Face book, the plethora of dating websites out there are all descending into “Hi, how r u? Having a good day? Gr8″
That’s why very young children are so good at them.
It’s not only the art of writing a coherent sentence that seems to be dying, it’s the art of actually articulating one, verbally.
And as the song says “If a picture paints a thousand words, then why can’t I paint you?”
Not on Twitter you can’t, mate.
C u l8r. xx:0) lol.
Grumpy of Dulwich.
Oh, Grumpy. I was you once. (I even lived in Dulwich.) You’ll find plenty of “@crazypixie lol!!!! gr8 pix c u!! LMAO!!” on Twitter. As I say, don’t follow what you don’t like. (It’s like newspapers. If all you read is the Daily Mail, you’ll hate newspapers. Unfairly.)
Just about everyone I follow with any interest is articulate, spirited, open, and often LOL funny. And one thing I forgot to say to John: I love the banal. Or perhaps more accurately, the mundane.
There’s a little frisson (if you’re of my bent) in knowing that somewhere out there, maybe on the other side of the world, another human being just put the kettle on, or got jumped on by the cat, or laughed at the telly, or even just left for work, and you know about it. (It’s often the commentary that makes it, of course, adding a uniqueness to the generic.)
Maybe that’s sad and trivial, but (here we go with the overpromise) for me, it’s a rather thrilling sense of connection with other lives – 90% of them lives I would never otherwise know. The web of humanity, if I may go that far. It’s all good.
Sorry, the whole thing leaves me a bit cold. But then I am ancient.
Roger, if you’re ancient then what am I?
This came in from John Allert (grapefruit) – ‘coevalist’ might be the word for the two of you – who writes “Am on holiday in Prague at the mo but certainly keen for when I return next week. I find the brevity a most liberating constraint.”
You choose
Like a bird on the wire,
Like a drunk in a …
I have tried in my way to be free.
Like a worm on a hook,
Like a knight from some …
I have saved all my twitters for thee.
140/171
Is a twitter then a linear haiku, composed in the glow of the ethereal screen? And should the counting finger glide over the emptiness of space or deem it a character too?
midnight choir and old-fashioned book still work for me….and I’m pretty sure the space counts as a character. Interesting concept in itself – could become a story.
John,
I’m with Mike (in fact I’m a follower!) Twitter is very non-tech in its basic form. Think more of a telephone – it’s not whether you have one or not, it’s what you say.
I have three Twitter accounts at the moment – one myself, one for a book/blog project and one that I’m managing for a client (while they get to grips with the Twitter concept).
I use each one differently because each one has a different goal. I’m sure a blogberry Twitter account would be useful as you can Tweet when the blog has been updated, when someone has made a good comment, when you’re going to do a signing, when you spot something that the book relates to… the list can go on.
I adore the twitter of the robin who lives in my garden, and the blackbirds in the evening….but then I am ancient too…
I’m not a Twitterer (is that right, or perhaps a Twit?) but I’m intrigued and, bypassing the banal “just painted my toenails” drivel, it seems so full of possibility. After writing an unthinkable amount of text messages, I really should be over it by now, but I can’t help it. I’m a helpless devotee of the constraint and yes, yes, yes Twitter seems made for poetry, bring it on
Dear John. I’m interested. A collaborative poem on Twitter is a good idea.