Smart Twitter Profiles

Do you Tweet? If you do and you are using your Twitter account to get your writing name (or other professional name) out there, you might want to give Galley Cat’s listing of the top 5 Twitter Profile mistakes that writers make a quick scan. I made one of them. How about you?

(I admit, I tried to make my personal description a tad cheeky. Although, I thought despite the cheek it still gave (yes, past tense–I did change it) readers a bit of an idea of who I was/am and that I am maybe not 100% run of the mill author-to-be.)

The fact is, I find that many Tweeters make that ‘mistake’ fairly often–Tweeters not describing themselves very well. So… Who are you? What makes you unique and special? Why should I follow you? Tell me in that tiny little area and you just might find yourself a couple of extra followers tagging on each week.

As for profile pictures–I don’t care if you have one. Really. Not a big deal.

And location? I don’t care about that either. In fact, I prefer NOT to put down my location. I don’t live in a city of millions (New York) so a little personal privacy is a GOOD thing.

What do you look for in a Twitter profile? Do you think their listed mistakes are a big deal?

Your Stuff Says Stuff

That’s right. According to Sam Gosling, a social psychologist, our stuff says stuff about us and our personalities. In fact, he says that in order to really learn about the people you know… don’t spend time with them, spend time with their possessions.

And I just have to say this idea made me SO curious as a writer that I decided I had to find out more. And then the sociologist in me got curious. And then the snoop in me got curious. And now I am in the middle of nowhere without a bookstore to be seen and I am literally burning with curiosity. I’m curious what my stuff says about me (I actually had issues with building a house way back when there were no houses on the market and the only way to get a house was to build one as I feared what living in a brand new house would say about me), what sort of things I can put in my stories to leave telling traces that allow the reader to see what my character is really about–or not about. I’m curious about what my friends are really like, my parents, my in-laws, my relatives of all shapes and sizes, my neighbours, my … well, you get the point. I’m curious!

So, I’ve ordered Gosling’s book “Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You.” And I will report back here on what I read. But come on… you have to admit, aren’t you a touch curious too?

“Sam Gosling is an engaging writer, a brilliant psychologist, and a charming individual—and he must never, ever be allowed inside my office!”–Mary Roach, author of Stiff and Bonk

Mother Nature’s a Little Pissed Off

I’ve been away for a bit doing another crazy cross Canada/US adventure–hence my neglected blog. Sorry about that.

You may recall last year’s adventure where I was wondering if there were any roads left in Southern Saskatchewan. (And there sort of were.) This year has been another banner year for floods. And to think two years ago I was contemplating planting cactus in the front yard it was so dry… Here on the Canadian prairies we’ve had towns burn to the ground (Slave Lake) followed by being flooded out (again, Slave Lake). Even our town had flooding (twice) with manhole covers shooting up three feet in the air from the intense rainfall trying to gush its way to our “lake” (really just a smelly pond we like to imagine is a real, honest-to-goodness lake). (Thank goodness we live on a hill!)

This year, like most, we jammed ourselves in our vehicle and traveled across a couple of provinces (and American states), camping our way along and pounding down some of those same roads as last year. To my surprise, they were still working on the stretch of the Trans Canada in Southern Saskatchewan where the Eastbound double lane was completely washed out. I had assumed that, one year later, everything would be tickety-boo and good to go again. Evidently not quite.

Here’s a little of what I saw:

This is the Eastbound lane–that packed dirt that drops off into the gulch. (The white truck is a construction vehicle, not someone about to do some serious 4x4ing.)

While this bit of Saskatchewan road was passable, there were some stretches in the southern part of the province that got the hack this year from new floods–involving a bit of a detour for us. (Those were the floods from Weyburn and area that stretched down to Minot, North Dakota. Man, is Minot ever hurting. Don’t try going camping there.) It is amazing what a few days of way too much water can do to a place. And yet… on the other side of the world people are starving due to drought.

I think Mother Nature might be a little P.O.ed at us…

Learning From The Marriage Ref

The other night my husband discovered a TV show called The Marriage Ref. Naturally, we were sucked in for an episode–and it wasn’t just because Jerry Seinfeld was one of the referees. Nope, it was because of the characters.

The show’s premise is basically that married couples often have a ‘fight’ that go on for some time. And thus, in order to help resolve this ‘fight,’ once and for all, you need three celebrities to step in and weigh in on either the wife’s side or the husband’s side. In theory, this should end the ‘fight’ once and for all.

The episode we watched had a husband who is obsessed with growing giant pumpkins. Yep, seriously. This man knows about a billion types of pumpkins, grows world record breaking sized fruit, and even sneaks off to grow them in the neighbour’s yard. But the best was the husband who partakes in crazy bets with his friends. For instance, mowing his lawn dressed as Elvis, (how perfect is that?) jogging around the neighbourhood in his wife’s exercise gear (yes, that includes her sports bra–and, yes, he stretched it out.) Naturally, his wife was suitably appalled by her mate’s behaviour. Personally, I was somewhat delighted by the ingenuity and creativity of some of the bets. (As well, some of these quasi-humiliating bets might be something I’d be prone to do in the right setting.)

So, what can writers learn from a show life this?

Well, think about it. Why are these folks on TV? Because these are good, one-of-a-kind, interesting characters that entertain the bejesus out of the audience. Moral of the story, when building characters, build them deep, quirky, and real. And if you get stuck, watch The Marriage Ref.

Good luck and have fun!