A Writerly Writer

I wish I were more writerly.

In an effort to boost my twitter followers and Facebook likes, I’ve been snooping around on other author’s sites. The chick I checked out today has 36.4K (yes K!) followers on Twitter. That’s thirty-six thousand, four hundred people who have clicked “like” on her twitter page.

Crazy.

I can’t even imagine that three thousand people know who I am, let alone thirty-six thousand! And she only has one book out which is “independently published” which is usually code for self-published. I’m impressed. I wish that when I stumbled upon a writer like this, I thought – “Wow, that’s so amazing, I could do that, too.”

But I don’t.

I think,

“Who is she paying to get all those clicks?”

or

"I don't need all those followers, my followers are quality followers,"

or more so lately,

“I am such a schmuck. There’s NO WAY I will ever be successful at this.”

I have 230 followers on twitter and 371 likes on Facebook. Probably most of those are repeats, so there’s maybe 400 people AT MOST who have a remote interest in my writing. Sigh.

Most days I forget about Facebook and twitter altogether. I know as a SUCCESSFUL WRITER, that’s not a good thing. I should be OUT THERE communing with the social media circus, tossing off witty comments and clever asides. To that end I recently changed the notification settings on my phone so that I receive twitter and Facebook notifications on my home screen.

I have no idea how twitter decides which tweets warrant my notification. Sometimes I hear the twitter sound and look at the phone figuring someone has mentioned me, or followed me, or at the very least something REALLY COOL is happening. That’s generally not the case. Today I actually stopped running to check out the notification. Here’s what was so important that twitter had to interrupt my run – two people I follow had retweeted the same boring tweet. Great. Thanks.

I guess, there was so little happening in my own twittosphere, that twitter thought they’d rub it in that other people are out there retweeting and tweeting and overtweeting, unlike me. I hadn’t tweeted since yesterday because I was reading and then sleeping and then running. C’mon, already. I’m doing my best with this.

I don’t know why it bothers me. The comparison thing is so high school.

Most days it doesn’t. Most days I think, “I’m living the dream. I’m writing every day and a few of my words have actually been published.” I focus on my side of the equation and not the other side. The side where I don’t have thirty-six thousand followers.

I’m not writing for fame, fortune, or followers. My bank account will testify to that. I’m writing because I love to write. Today I’m focusing on that. I’m not tweeting or posting or even lurking on other writer’s sites feeling inadequate. I’m plopping my butt on my chair (my new exercise ball chair, so plopping is the right word!), and writing. I’m going to get back at that now.

​#amwriting #beawriter #buttinchair

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