I visited the newly renovated AGO yesterday for the first time and fell madly in love. I was overwhelmed by expansive emotions that want to be shared. So I whipped out my iPhone and began tweeting. @mcphadenmike @inkcanada @johncallaghan @Positronics @Mutanto @jennschac among others were there to greet me and responded enthusiastically to my enthusiasm.
I’ve been wondering recently about my obsession with the internet. Why on earth do I have two blogs, accounts on Facebook, MySpace, Stumble Upon, FriendFeed, Digg, Delicious and Twine (to name but a few)? Why do I Twitter obsessively? Why do I spend every spare waking hour developing drama for the web when clearly there is not a cent to be made in the pursuit? When people ask me about this I often tell them that I enjoy the feel of brick against my head. When I sit down to self-assess I only get far enough to conclude that I’m insane and then take solace by sharing links with @RobboMills.
But there at the AGO, 140 characters at a time, @inkcanada helped me arrive at an epiphany.
I get high in the presence of art and the very walls and staircases of the AGO are art, never mind what’s hanging on the walls. I was filled with joy and excitement and the manic bursting feeling you get that makes you want to shout from rooftops (or is it just me?). I was tweeting back and forth with @inkcanada about Twittering and art. Looking at the works from the 1960s, including brightly coloured slogans, some underscored by Stones tunes, I started to wonder if Twitter would be part of a collection of artwork representing 2009.
To which I replied that Twitter is a form, distinct from blogging and screenwriting. Closer to poetry, KW replied, but still encompassing story. And interactive, added I, interactively.
I had just come to the conclusion that the real benefit of Twitter for writers, is that there isn’t time for self-censorship. When you first sign up, you wonder whether you’ll ever use it and to say what exactly? Then you worry about each Tweet and whether you should throw it out there or not and what the impact will be and whether someone will critique it. It’s the writing version of the shy bladder phenomenon where you’re afraid to commit to words in front of the others.
It’s one thing to write when it’s a paying gig. If it comes out stupid, that’s cause that’s how the client wanted it. Any of your peers who see or read it and judge it wanting will also know that you got notes and were probably forced to mitch it up.
But then you get Twitter and there are no notes. Direct from your head/fingers to the world. Whoa. What the hell do you say?
I apparently have that part down with over 1000 tweets on my personal account (never mind, the accounts for the Story2.OH characters). But is it all a giant wank? Time waster extraordinaire?
Standing there in the AGO, I concluded that Twittering helps me-the-writer to turn off my self-censor. Now that I’ve been doing it for a while, I automatically look for moments in my life that I can share with the Tweetosphere. Those little moments, things you observe, feel, conclude, wonder about, tiny moments of triumph or defeat — they are beats/Tweets/the smallest unit of story/the most basic elements of writing. The moments worthy of telling. The elements you shape into your story.
Wedged as I was between the real world and the virtual one, I was pretty chuffed with myself. Aren’t I the profound thinker? I tweeted it out there: the benefit of Twitter to a writer is that it helps you learn to stop censoring yourself and write from a more personal place.
Right! Of course. Karen Walton is so much smarter than I am. I love the internet, but she married it. That’s the reason for all the Twittering. That’s the point of all my goofing around on the Internet, my Facebooking and blogging and exploring how to tell story on the web.
I’ve been searching for my voice.
Polly
And what about the ultimate thrill for a writer? Instant Feedback!
Or that ultimate tool of dialogue writers? Eavesdropping!
But personally, justifying twitter/facebook is really easy for me: Forster’s “Only connect.” I have friends around the world and I now have ways to connect to their intimate thoughts and experiences on a daily basis instead of summarized form every few months – how wonderful. Not to mention the opportunity to connect with people I might otherwise never meet…
karen walton (inkca)
Ha! O yes eavesdropping. Polly’s smarter than all of us. Truth re. our newly shared gallery-lust (and plans afoot for more)? I was on Twitter at all, and caught the contact high because I compulsively ‘follo’ Jill’s lead where ever storytellers meet world is concerned. Jill lead me to Twitter (bolstered by her discussions here, at Story2Oh). There was too a timely boot-to-pants via a personal invite from our beloved ink-tern, @BCLaraby — which I now regret ignoring for ages, thinking, like Jill, that my wedding the web was already a high-enuf maintenance rlshp. So add, inspiration and shamelessly tailgating those who recklessly encourage those seeking more than audience. Those seek finest company! Those seeking to celebrate own, real, mad Voices! Ta-whit Ta-whit Ta-whoooooo!
MJReid
Twitter is a technological application that bolsters natural human / primate behavior. Members of primate groups (bands? communities?) make efforts to connect with the other members of their groups, even just with a touch or a couple of seconds of togetherness in a task. This (apparently) fosters common purpose and belonging. The same happens with human groups, and always has. Getting together at meal-time; religious and / or social events; marriages, births, funerals; sport and games; art and music – all examples of social community building.
The big difference with Twitter and the like is it allows community building to be intentional and non-local. You’re not constrained by physical proximity. You can add and remove members of your intentional community at will. You can connect faster, wider, and more powerfully than ever before. Heady stuff.
This is also why web-based entertainment (web series and the like) is so compelling to me: the audience is wider and more fluid, and niche-casting offers the possibility of a small, widely distributed, but RABID audience fanbase. Not to mention instant audience feedback and audience participation (even to a limited extent). Headier stuff!
admin
I like building community this way because you’re all so smart. Not to mention witty and entertaining… and when we’re on Twitter, succinct. I love it when you help me think things through and make sense of them. I also love the brilliance of these web apps where they build them without being able to anticipate how we’ll use them.