NEWS FLASH: After many years as a certified Twitterphobe, I've finally caved in and signed on to both Twitter and Instagram. (I'm also on LinkedIn; but I'm holding the line with Facebook).
My mission is to bring creativity, color, and pleasure to the world of academic and professional writing, one Twittertweet or Instatreat at a time. Please follow me @helens_word.
If, like me, you're a newbie in the Twittersphere/Instaverse, you're welcome to hang back and watch as I take my own halting baby steps. But if you're already a confident power user – as I know many of you are – I'd be grateful if you could work some of your social media magic to help me grow my audience.
I've just posted a bouquet of old newsletter collages and blog links to both platforms so that you'll have plenty of fun stuff to like, share, and retweet. Next I plan to publish my 10-part Write Like Freddie series, with some bonus photos at the end.
But but but but but but – have I mentioned my lingering sense of dread? The anxiety about professional self-sabotage that hangs around me like a black cloud? My fear of being sucked into the social media muck and losing all sense of proportion – to say nothing of time?
To reframe my negative emotions, I've turned to paper collage and its creative cousin, metaphor.
If I visualize my website as a colorful garden where I happily potter around most days – nurturing seedlings, pulling out weeds, watering and fertilizing and pruning – I can see Twitter as just another tree in a much larger landscape, one that I have planted for its capacity to attract avian life. Sure, I'm a bit worried about all the noise. Did you know that the English word jargon comes from an Old French word denoting the sound made by twittering birds?
I've reimagined Instagram's squareish camera logo, meanwhile, as the door to my garden shed / log cabin / mountain chalet / writing studio. That wonky, welcoming Instaportal gives me another metaphor to ponder: perhaps my collage is trying to tell me something about the creative relationship between society and solitude?
As soon I've built up a respectable Twitter/Insta following, I hope to use both platforms to crowdsource future newsletter material. For example:
What metaphors for writing does this week's collage invoke for you?
What tips and tricks can you recommend to others for writing more productively, playfully, pleasurably, [choose your own adverb]?
Most pressing for me at the moment: How do you make the most of Twitter and Instagram without going insane?!
A special shout-out to all the generous colleagues and friends – Michelle Boyd @InkWellRetreats, Karim Khan @KarimKhan_IMHA, Inger Mewburn @thesiswhisperer, Amanda Palmer @amandapalmer, Steven Pinker @sapinker, Margy Thomas @ScholarShape, and Pat Thomson @ThomsonPat, among others – who have encouraged or inspired me to take this scary step.
I hope to see you soon in the newest patch of my garden!
Subscribe here to Helen’s Word on Substack to access the full Substack archive and receive weekly subscriber-only newsletters (USD $5/month or $50/year).
WriteSPACE members enjoy a complimentary subscription to Helen’s Word as part of their membership plan (USD $15/month or $150/year). Not a member? Join the WriteSPACE now and get your first 30 days free.