Writers in the Storm

by Jenny Hansen / @jhansenwrites
(Part 3 in a series of Twitter blogs – click here for Part 1 and Part 2)

At my February writers meeting, we heard Laura Drake (@PBRWriter) talk on getting an agent and Robyn Carr talk about her amazing and varied writing career. While they were both awesome speakers who taught me a ton, I was surprised that the topic with the most buzz at the meeting was Twitter (and it wasn’t all favorable).

As I’m sure you know by now, I’m madly in love with the site so it was disconcerting to see several grimaces and hear scads of complaints. The most common were:

“I like Facebook.”
“I just can’t do that 140 character thing.”
“I don’t know where to start.”
“Twitter is a pain… (I’ll leave the end of that sentence off…you get the picture.)

I’ve been working to get some converts. Between this blog series on Twitter and some one-on-one coaching, I think I’m gaining on the naysayers (a little). Still, the only time I saw excitement was when I asked Robyn Carr her Twitter name and Followed her from my phone.

It was at the end of the meeting and there were 4-5 people around us, waiting to speak with her when she answered that she was @RCarrWrites. I had my phone ready for her (see list of commands below) so I just confirmed her username spelling and hit Send to follow her. The small crowd immediately erupted.

“I wish my phone would do that,” three people said it in unison.
“Your phone WILL do that,” I said.
“No, I don’t have Internet” and “I don’t know how” were the responses.

I’ll explain here, in orderly steps, what I explained to my writing buddies that Saturday.

You don’t need internet or a cool app on your phone to use Twitter. You just need a phone plan that includes texting.

You must first register your phone with Twitter – you can do this with any phone that has standard SMS texting (all messaging rates on your phone plan will apply. Most plans, like mine, will have Unlimited Text).

To Register Your Phone:

1. Be sure you are logged into Twitter
2. Click on your Username (upper right corner of the screen where your picture is)
3. Choose Settings from the drop down menu
4. Click on Mobile in the bar at the top of the screen

Once you put in your phone number, you will be asked to authenticate that it is really you (via a text to your phone that you will reply to). You also have additional options you may check off such as letting others find you in Twitter by using your phone number and receiving text messages when people mention or reply to your tweets. I have found that allowing these text message notifications keeps me very up to date with what is going on with my Twitter account, with very minimal effort on my part.

Note: If you are a light sleeper, I urge you to check the option near the bottom of the screen that allows you to turn off updates during certain hours. There is nothing worse than being woken up by text messages all night if you need to keep your phone on for work or family.

You must hit the Save button at the bottom of the Mobile screen to save these settings. You may now tweet from anywhere, whether you have internet access on your phone or not.

Last but not least, I have included the list of commands you can use to tweet from your phone below – these are also listed on the right side of the Mobile page in your Twitter settings. Remember, that you send all Twitter texts to 40404. I highly recommend that you save this number as a contact called "Twitter" in your phone.

FOLLOW username - Start following a user
UNFOLLOW username - Stop following a user
ON/OFF - Turn all Tweet notifications on or off
ON/OFF username - Set Tweet notifications for a user on or off (you'll still be following them even if you set it to off)

GET username - Shows you the latest tweet from any user
RT username - Retweet a user's latest tweet
FAV username - Favorite a user's latest tweet
D username your-message - Send a direct message to a user
(Use extreme caution when sending direct messages (DM’s) from your phone – if you leave off the D, you will have just sent your private message out into the Twitterverse. Phrase your DM’s accordingly, to avoid potential embarrassment. Note: You can only DM people who follow you.)

 Another easy way to get people's tweets delivered to your phone is to click the phone icon on a user's profile page or on your followers page. As long as you registered your phone first, you will immediately begin receiving texts with tweets from this user.

If you want to find more excellent resources on Twitter, please check out the Twitter Tuesday series on Kristen Lamb’s blog or read this great post by marketing expert, Penny Sansevieri on The Real Secret to Twitter. You can’t go wrong with either of these ladies' blogs or books.

My last gift to you is Chris Brogan’s 50 Power Twitter Tips (he’s @chrisbrogan, by the way). They’re all useful but I’m partial to the first ten, especially #3.

What’s your favorite?

by Jenny Hansen / @jhansenwrites
(Part 2 in a series of Twitter blogs – click here for Part 1)

 To hashtag or not to hashtag…that is the question. If you are new to Twitter, you might not understand that question yet. Listen up, all you non-taggers, because the amazing hashtag is going to help you get more out of Twitter. The hashtag, also known as the pound sign or crosshatch (#), is a grouping or searching tool you can use in your Twitter posts. 

When you tweet, only your immediate followers see you…unless you put a subject specific hashtag in your tweet that describes your topic. This hashtag will include your tweet in the ongoing chat stream that people on Twitter follow. When I tweet this blog, I’ll probably add #writing and #amwriting on the end of the post since those are two searches that I’ve created columns for in TweetDeck (this app is discussed in the next Twitter blog).

Let’s put this hashtagging business into perspective:

If your followers see your tweet, that is a wonderful thing. These are your Followers, your Tweeties, your peeps who think you have something valuable to say. It’s like your local lemonade stand where everyone on your block walks by, chats and gives you a quarter for a cool beverage. It’s a groovy, fuzzy thing and you’ll probably pay off your lemonade ingredients.

By adding a hashtag (#LemonadeStand for example) to the post, you and your little stand will be on the Twitter equivalent of Google or Bing, searchable to all the world, or at least all of the world that is so interested in lemonade stands that they follow the chat stream for #LemonadeStand.

Your local little tweet becomes part of a global “scene” with the hashtag. If you write to share your thoughts with the world, this is heady indeed. It is also informative.

Last week, I had Twitter open during lunch, just eating and watching the feed from the people I follow. Out of the corner of my eye I saw @MargaretAtwood and tuned in. There on the screen was “Interview at 1 pm with @MargaretAtwood. Go to #followreader to tune in.” All I had to do was click the #followreader hyperlink and I was watching a live interview with, as one of the other followers said, “Margaret Freaking Atwood. OMG!”  She is a long-time favorite of mine and it was a shot of adrenaline to see her answer questions from her fans, live and in color. 

The experience was amazing and way better than a crowded conference hall where you have to leave your seat and walk over to an open mic to ask a question. For this Twitter chat, we could ask her any question we wanted and, as long as we put #followreader on the end, it showed up for everyone in the chat (including Margaret Freaking Atwood!). The same goes for the #AskEditor chat the second Friday of each month at 3 pm EST. Editors abound, waiting for YOUR question. (I expect to see all of you hanging with the editors the next #AskEditor Friday, OK?)

Isn’t one of the huge draws of Twitter the ability to interact with people all over the world who you’d never be able to meet or get near otherwise? Though I think there is some narcissism at play in Twitter’s astounding popularity, I think the real excitement is the sense of community and the depth of knowledge that’s available. The hashtag will help enhance the experience for you, I promise.

It is interesting to note that the hashtag was not originally built into Twitter. The workers, particularly Chris Messina, wanted it but the management didn’t. They thought it looked too geeky. Many of the program’s features come from IRC (Internet Relay Chat), which was almost twenty years old at the time, and the hash mark has its roots there too. It’s surprising that a technology group was worried about the nerd factor. Still, the users wanted the “channel” feature and just organically began to use it. Twitter has in many ways been driven and defined by its user community which is, in my humble opinion, part of its charm.

For a great resource on Twitter (and social media and branding), I recommend that you visit Kristen Lamb’s blog and read all of her Twitter Tuesdays posts – TT #2 deals with hashtags and delves a bit deeper on some of the topics here.

If you would like to see a list of popular hashtags, go to one of the following sites:

• Specific to writers: http://www.dailywritingtips.com/40-twitter-hashtags-for-writers/
• http://tagal.us/ is working hard to be the dictionary on hashtags. It is a cool site and worth looking at since a list of tags drops down as you type and the hashtag definition shows in the search results.

Please feel free to add any other hashtag references or sites into the comments section below. We’re interested to hear what your favorites are.

In the meantime, enjoy some new Twitter functionality. Happy writing!

by Sharla Rae

In Laura Drake’s recent blog My Editing Peeves, here at WITS, she points out dialogue tags. I have to agree that too many “saids” on a page or even in a chapter are annoying. Sure there are other tags like snarled, whispered, interjected, cried etc. But again, they stand out if overused. Included in this illustrious list are all the he and she thoughts.

After taking a hard look at tags, I realized something. Tags are tattletales! He said, he yelled, he whispered. It’s “telling." And one of the first lessons in writing is to “show” not “tell.” Don’t you love how writing is like knitting? One set of rules always weaves into another set. Okay, back to the subject of tags.

We can’t do without tags completely, but we can kill off some of the little buggers.

With only two characters on stage, tag extermination is easier. Using new paragraphs each time one of the two speaks eliminates the need for tags. Also, a character’s dialect, accent, or speech pattern may set them apart from other characters. Still, even with just two characters there are times it’s absolutely necessary to indicate who’s speaking to prevent confusion.

Now, place three or more characters on stage, and things get really complicated. Complicated, but not impossible. 

One of my favorite ways to kill a dialogue tag is through the use of body movement and/or body language. If a character is moving or has a certain facial expression, we don’t need the tag. Body language has the added benefit of expressing emotion. In other words, using this method “shows” a character is angry, happy, or depressed.  

Examples:

•  Instead of:  “Stop it!” James said. [He could be angry but then again he could be laughing hard and telling someone to stop it. But if we say: James said, angrily, we’re telling.]
Try:  James sliced the air with his hand. “Stop it!”
Try:  “Stop it!” James held his sides, laughing.

 • Instead of:  “Is she serious?” Amber asked, rolling her eyes.
 Try:  “Is she serious?” Amber rolled her eyes and laughed.

• Instead of:  “Gosh, I love this song,” Jill said, dreamily. [Yikes it’s an "ly" word!]
Try:  “Gosh, I love this song.” Jill closed her eyes and swayed to the music.

• Instead Of:  “Try it, you little weasel,” Jake bellowed. “Just try it.”
Try:  “Jakes palms slapped the tabletop. “Try it, you little weasel. Just try it.”

• Instead of:  “You jerk!” Pam screamed, swinging her handbag at him.
Try:  “You jerk!” Pam lashed out at him with her handbag.

The same idea applies to the he or she thought tags.

Example:

• Instead of:  Can this day get any worse? Jane wondered.
 Try:  Jane slumped into the nearest easy chair and kicked off her shoes. Could this day get any worse?

•  Instead of: If he comes through that door, I’ll brain him, Jill silently vowed.
Try:  If he comes through that door, I’ll brain him. Jill’s fingernails bit into her palms. [Shows determination]

Punctuation can be used to negate tags that indicate strong feelings. To demonstrate what I mean, I’ll use one of my above examples.

“You jerk!” Pam screamed, swinging her handbag at him.

Given there is an exclamation mark after jerk, we know Pam said this with strong feelings. Unless we want her screaming to draw the attention of characters around her, we don’t need to “tell” the reader she screamed. Also, her actions indicate anger and that makes the tag an even bigger overkill. But what if Pam said it under her breath so as not to draw attention? Do we need to say, she whispered? It works. But we could also say: Pam sneered and leaned close, her lips a mere inch from his ear. “Jerk.”

Note: Don’t over use exclamation marks. Again, body language will work just as well.

It must be said, though, that having all the characters on stage constantly nodding, scratching, dancing and throwing things would be just as annoying, not to mention ridiculous, as too many tags. So a few tags are allowed and in some instances they work better for a tight, straight to the point sentence.

I know of no set rules on how many dialogue tags are allowed on a page. The best rule of thumb is to vary your dialogue and cut them when possible. And if you’re still unsure, read the page out loud. Too many tags make the writing sound choppy. They also distract. The right balance will result in tighter writing that “shows” more and “tells” less.

Related Websites:

Three Places Where You Should Tell: http://wordplay-kmweiland.blogspot.com/2011/02/three-places-where-you-should-tell.html

From An Editor’s POV: http://theeditorsblog.net/2010/12/25/use-and-misuse-of-dialogue-tags/ 

The Use and Abuse of Dialogue Tags: http://www.writing-world.com/fiction/said.shtml

Avoid Creative Dialogue Syndrome: http://users.wirefire.com/tritt/tip4.html