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.