How Twitter Has Helped Me to Become a Better Writer

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For some Twitter is a waste of time. For others it is a way to stay in touch with the world. But it has helped me become a better writer.

Twitter forces me to make an argument or develop a thought in no more than 140 characters. In a world of digital verbosity, that’s hard to do.

But how much can one communicate in such small chunks, including spaces and punctuation? A lot of people tell me it’s too restrictive.

twitter writing
But it has compelled me to focus on the power of words, using them deliberately and effectively–painting a clear picture with few strokes.

As a former college teacher, I expected my English composition students to get to the point quickly and give their readers a reason to read on.

In a time of endless blogs and social networks where prose flows unfettered, a well-crafted thought has the opportunity to rule the day.

Twitter is not about more; it’s about better. It’s like the difference between an eau de cologne and eau de parfum–quantity vs quality.

Here are a few examples of recent tweets. Some are funny, some thoughtful, some mundane, but all of them succinct:

  • Proverbs 16:32: I wish it didn’t speak so powerfully to me, but it does. As a parent to two teens I need to plaster this to my forehead.
  • New seat cushions on my southwest plane. First reaction: excitement, then sadness that I actually noticed and cared. The crew was amused.
  • Met a huge spotted eagle ray on my morning swim. Never seen anything like it. Thankfully, he seemed less interested in me.

So there…a few reasons to give Twitter a try: you’ll be more selective in your word choices and become a better communicator.

P.S.,  In case you didn’t notice this blog post was Twitterlized by keeping paragraphs to, well, as you’d expected, 140 meaningful characters.

Has Twitter or another social media tool affected your writing?

  • Social media has impacted my writing immensely. It got me writing on a regular basis and keeps me pumping out relevant posts. There are so many blogs out there and people have less time than ever to sit and read, that it challenges me to write posts that are valuable and important, and not waste peoples’ time.

  • I originally got on Twitter to promote my blog of unfettered flowing prose (haha that was classic).  What I didn’t count on was connecting with several people out there that I now consider dear friends.  It is a challenge when posting a thought on FB then having to edit it to fit onto Twitter.  I often find the more condensed version funnier and wish I’d started there first.

    • Bret, I use Hootsuite to post to both FB and Twitter. That forces me to write it in as few words as I can.

  • All of my social media (Twitter, FB, and blog) have challenged me to deliver value in a compact package. Twitter is the most fun, precisely because of the hard limit on characters.

    • I’m convinced that limitations promote our most creative stuff.

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