Slackworking
This morning I've been working on the business side of writing: "networking". I found a bunch of writing groups on Linked In and am trying to figure out how much to participate in them, if at all.
Or more accurately, how much online-networking is justifiable for not sitting down to actually write?
I'm thinking it has to be limited. I should come up with a ratio. Or someone should.
It's not that I haven't been productive lately. I'm working on the 3rd draft of my second picture book, and the reliable reader plot and villains are pretty well nailed. I sent off more submissions and queries for the first picture book, and continue to look for the right magazine for my food-related writing interests.
Still.
Writing seems to induce a strange inertia. When I'm not sitting in front of the keyboard or notebook, ideas wait to jump from my brain through my fingertips. The moment the fingers touch a writing implement however, the urge to do anything but write kicks in.
How much more useful or valuable is Linked In compared to Facebook? How much time should be spent in online discussion venues like these, when there is actual writing to be done?
Or more accurately, how much online-networking is justifiable for not sitting down to actually write?
I'm thinking it has to be limited. I should come up with a ratio. Or someone should.
It's not that I haven't been productive lately. I'm working on the 3rd draft of my second picture book, and the reliable reader plot and villains are pretty well nailed. I sent off more submissions and queries for the first picture book, and continue to look for the right magazine for my food-related writing interests.
Still.
Writing seems to induce a strange inertia. When I'm not sitting in front of the keyboard or notebook, ideas wait to jump from my brain through my fingertips. The moment the fingers touch a writing implement however, the urge to do anything but write kicks in.
And look what happens when you succumb: boredom! Even writing about the phenomenon is boring!
Guess I'll log off and work on some actual writing. Draft 4 awaits...
If I ever get serious about writing again (and in truth I never put in the work to get truly serious in the first place), I'd have to figure out all the icons to add to the bottom. I have a Facebook and Twitter account and definitely I'd have to watch what I'm popping off about on Twitter especially. Google+ Google Buzz, Linkedin it all gives me a headache but such are the times we live in.
ReplyDeleteBlogger makes the buttons easy. I found the Wordpress interface to be a bit less intuitive, but I'm sure you could do it without too much trouble. They say (though I'm not sure who "they" are) that social networking is THE way for increasing readership. The problem is that it takes so much time to do a decent job of promotion...
ReplyDeleteHeadache is right.
The legions of self-help gurus have gravitated to becoming social media gurus. "They" say we must be totally immersed in it, in every way. Now social media is a wonderful thing in certain ways, being able to interact right here for example, but what happens to things like quiet reflection, privacy, outdated ideas like that?
ReplyDelete