Spooky tweets and stuff . . .
I’ve discovered Twitter.
Lest you think I’ve been in an oubliette for the last however long, let me say I knew Twitter was there, it’s just that I have been slow on the uptake. I had to learn about FB and blogging first, and then about Wattpad. And now finally Twitter.
To be frank, whilst I have a rollicking great time with each tweet, I am not sure I am really the right kind of person for it. For a start I am a writer given to long sentences. One of the editors who works with me takes sabres to my sentences. If Richard Armitage were reading one of my books for Naxos Audiobooks, I swear he would have to practice free-diving to stretch his lung capacity before beginning. 140 characters is seriously like putting me in a chocolate shop and saying pick two!
I’m not sure what sent me to Twitter last week, but when I arrived, I found the cast of Spooks were tweeting. 
Supposedly. I opted to follow them. Imagine my surprise when an email popped up saying Lucas_North was following me. What else could I say but ‘Unnerved. Are you *following* me or following me?’ Then SirHJPierce followed me, talking about my roast lamb, then RosMyers and she told me to ask SirHJPierce where he put her jeans and leather jackets because I asked her what it took to earn a black leather jacket on the Grid. And finally, my hero, MalcolmWJ, the techno-whizz, so calm and gentle and who appears to be having hell’s own trouble with his Welsh mum, Mullered Melia, who has attacked Lucas and left lovebites or similar on SirHJ’s neck to which RuthEvershed is reacting badly. A lot of alcohol is consumed on the Grid (well, they are saving the UK after all) and Lucas and Dimitri and John Porter (Strikeback not Spooks) spend ages worrying about the pub, bollards and CCTV cameras.
It would be wonderful to think that it was the stars of that most superb TV series having some fun. 
http://www.freshnetworks.com/blog/2010/09/spooks-characters-on-twitter/
But I am noticing a pattern, a tone. They all sound similar. I found Guy of Gisborne on Twitter too, although I am not following him, but his tweets read just like Lucas_North’s. Well, I suppose it could be Richard Armitage, but wouldn’t he be too busy doing all the things he does and particularly rushing round shooting Captain America just now?
Whatever the case, it’s all highly amusing. I have tried feeding them lines in the hope that they’ll take up a story and run with it in 140 characters, thereby building a flash-fiction of sorts, but so far they have their own agenda. Fair enough too!
All this prompted me to take note of Twitter and the writer. How serendipitous then that this week, I find a few blogs talking about just that.
http://jamigold.com/2010/09/twitter-is-a-writers-bff/
http://jamigold.com/2010/09/twitter-love-story/ This second a guest post from Mercedes Yardley of http://abrokenlaptop.com/
Now if all this fun could lead to agents and to publishers and to an increased readership if our writing is already out there, it makes all the delicious time- wasting worthwhile. Like sneaking the third chocolate from the chocolate shop while no one is looking.
(Please note: this writer in no way advocates shoplifting by the use of that last sentence.)