Comments on: Career Killers: Playing Around the Edges

By: Marilyn Blundin

Marilyn Blundin — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 15:55:32 +0000

Hi. Who me? Oh…hope I’m not intruding….just poking my head in to see what you’re site is about. A friend emailed it to me. My friend? Oh she’s in my writer’s group and a member of a group I started on Facebook called Writer’s Cramp. I posted your link there a little bit ago.
Yes, I relate to the message in the video. I’m very glad for the electronic media but challenged to keep up with it. I’m not fond of Twitter. I like Facebook for family and friends. But I still keep a copy of “Steinbeck. A Life in Letters” on my desk for inspiration and occasions when I need to remember life before computers. A great video to ponder, thanks. I try too not to be overwhelmed with my inept mastery of the new tools of communication. It is much like seeing a Ferrari approach in the rear view mirror of my Passat station wagon on a curvey two-lane highway….it makes me nervous.
My exercise is to write a book that I would want to read and preserve. Words chiseled in stone or calligraphy on parchment or tapped into a keyboard all deserve a purpose for that effort.
Thanks to blogs such as these I can poke my nose in to share and learn what others experience…much like reading Steinbeck’s Letters…and even occasionally “submit comment”! What a joy that would have been to correspond to Steinbeck!
I’ll refer to my 25 year+ collection of stories I’ve written and saved to disk to jog my now fading and foggy memory. I write with purpose, not on demand, including the piece I wrote for the local paper in the eighth grade, “Christ is not the Easter Bunny”. I’ve since searched this article on-line in the newspaper archives but they don’t go back that far. Good that I kept a clipping.
If I ever do find my way to interact with a publisher/editor, well, first I’ll be thrilled, and then I’ll be respectful of their time as well as my own thanks to blogs such as these.

By: Sharon Mayhew

Sharon Mayhew — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:41:45 +0000

I really enjoy blogging, but twitter is a whole different ball game. I lurk, but rarely say anything. One agent (not at Books & Such) used the F word in a tweet. She was someone I thought a lot of…until that point. I think you have to be very careful when you are using social networks. Her tweet left a big impression on me.

By: Cat Woods

Cat Woods — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 12:23:26 +0000

Thanks for this career building/breaking post. Balance is difficult in the best of circumstances, but with writing, it can be critical.

While everyone else I know tweets, facebooks and blogs regularly, I pretty much blog only. It’s where I feel comfortable and how I get the most connection for my time.

I will tweet a great post I have seen, but never lunch dates and parasailing. I don’t have the time or the inclination.

By: Morgan L. Busse

Morgan L. Busse — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 12:06:28 +0000

I’m with Jill. I have a certain amount of time for social networking (usually first thing in the morning with my cup of coffee) then again in the afternoon. But once 8:30am rolls around, its time to write.

By: Rachael Phillips

Rachael Phillips — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 20:26:15 +0000

Obviously, I like to read great blogs! And I love to stay in touch with other writers. But since I’m a morning person, I try to reserve most of that prime time for writing and do the bulk of my social networking later in the day.

P.S. Thanks for the laugh! I’m no social network genius, but this guy on the trailer makes me feel like a Twitter Einstein.

By: Jill Kemerer

Jill Kemerer — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 17:25:30 +0000

Great thoughts. When I began social networking through blogs, Facebook, and Twitter, I quickly realized how time consuming they could be–if I let them. Now, I give myself fifteen minutes each morning with a quick check back in the afternoon to spend on FB and Twitter. I don’t feel out of the loop, and I’m able to stay connected in a short amount of time.

Blogging is another animal. I follow so many blogs; it’s impossible for me to read them all. I aim to read blogs by my friends and most loyal followers once a week.

Thanks for showing the realities of social networking vs. writing. The two need to coexist, but writing should take the majority of our time.

By: Jessie Mac

Jessie Mac — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 17:09:52 +0000

It’s not that you enjoy social media connecting or even blogging more, it’s more to do with the immediacy of it all and of course, just as time-consuming. And amidst the constant message of needing to connect and give back, it’s good to hear the other side sometimes. Thanks for the post, Wendy. It’s a balance that I’m learning to achieve.

By: Wendy Lawton

Wendy Lawton — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 16:50:07 +0000

Michael, you are so right and it is a danger for agents as well. As we try to be linked online we are always second guessing ourselves. Why are we blogging? (To mentor and “give back.”) Why do we Twitter? (To follow the stream of immediate thought and to tout our clients when we can.)

Don’t you sometimes long for the pre-online days of relative isolation? Of course, then we wouldn’t all know each other and be able to share ideas so easily.

Wendy (Wiping the cookie smear from her mouth)

By: Michael K. Reynolds

Michael K. Reynolds — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 16:09:53 +0000

Just posting a comment is akin to having our hands in the cookie jar. (No…those aren’t cookie crumbs on my cheek.)

The demands of being an author are overwhelming. You mean we have to actually write too?

By: Teri Dawn Smith

Teri Dawn Smith — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 16:02:02 +0000

The Dennis Cass YouTube was indeed hilarious!

Like all things, I think social networking and writing involve a great deal of self-discipline–whether discipline to make myself do the networking or make myself quit and get to work. I’ve been setting certain goals that I strive for before I give myself permission get on the internet.

Thanks for the great career advice here!