Recent Favorite Twitter Musings

Twitter is my absolute favorite form of social media. One of the main reasons why is the encouraging, interactive writing community... Authors, editors, librarians, agents, readers and aspiring writers, etc constantly engage in dialogue about the in's and out's of the publishing industry. It’s not just about silently listening in on conversations, or peeking at Instagrammed photos with clever one-liners, driving traffic to personal blogs, gaining followers, or only talking with real-life friends, like some social media engagers I’ve encountered... The children’s book industry has proven – to me, at least – to be one of the most inviting, encouraging online networks out there, and there's a lot of networking, chatting, sharing, and so on happening on Twitter. It should be, and seems to be, geniune virtual connection between people who absolutely love books and love readers. As a professional writer and aspiring kid’s book author, I find Twitter to be an incredibly helpful resource. It's a window into a wealth of information. And it's where I get most of my book recs! I’ve been favoriting a lot of writing-related tweets lately, and here are some highlights… So many true gems of wisdom and hilarity in this batch! 

‪@ANNELAMOTT Wrote awhile. It went like this: scribble scribble lurch despair scribble scribble sigh herky jerk herky scrawl; and I thank God. A miracle.

‪@DeirdreEJones Sometimes writing and writing for pages and pages until you finally figure out what you’re trying to say is the only way to do this job.

‪@LaurelSnyder “Working” on picture books today. This means I’ll be staring at the ceiling a lot.

‪@AdviceToWriters Rewrite in process is usually found to be an excuse for not going on. ~JOHN STEINBECK

‪@tomhpollock “Go as far as you need to. YA isn’t a subset of children’s lit. It’s a subset of adult. It’s in the name.” ~Garth Nix.

‪@realjohngreen As a reader, I don’t feel a story has an obligation to make me happy. I want stories to show me a bigger world than the one I know.

@charlieinabook: Twitter is the authors’ office water cooler, sharing pressures and breaking the work day by building community ‪@Booktrust ‪#LBF13

‪@laura_tims Had not heard of Eleanor and Park and now I’m gonna get it. Thanks censorship, you’re always good for a book rec.

@WomenOfHistory: To be successful, you must decide exactly what you want to accomplish, then resolve to pay the price to get it.

‪@ANNELAMOTT Visited woman whose husand died—house so filled w/love that when I spilled coffee, she said, Hope it stains, so I remember beauty of today.

‪@catagator Teenagers today will never know the joy of calling a boy’s house just to listen to him say hello without him knowing it’s you on the line.

‏‪@stevenmalk Stop what you’re doing and read this essay that ‪@mattdelapena wrote for NPR.  Honest, moving & inspiring: http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2013/11/11/243960103/a-reluctant-reader-turns-ya-author-for-tough-teens?sc=tw&cc=share

@ANNELAMOTT: Take heart: at the start of every new piece, you’re supposed to feel sick, excited, overwhelmed and hopeless. I’m feeling that way right now

‏‪@molly_oneill You know you’re an editor when . . . the accidental double negative in your previous tweet is still haunting you half an hour later.

@ralphmarston: Free yourself from the burden of your own anxiety. Whatever is, is already. Whatever you will be, is yours to create right now.

@MissDahlELama: So many of us are trying to be the present and future of ‪#kidlit. We have the power to affect what they know and how they make choices.

‪@SarahGreenhouse Seeing tons of prologues in subs. Beware your prologue feeling totally disconnected from Ch 1, & the chapter feeling v anticlimactic.

@randomhouse: “When I started Catch-22, I thought writing novels might be a useful way to kill time.”― Joseph Heller

@elysesalpeter: Seriously, writers must be some of the strongest people on earth - your work is ripped apart, trashed, ignored, judged - yet we still write!

@SarahGreenhouse: What is my Wednesday wisdom? Anything you want to do well takes a lot of time and effort. And I believe everything should be done well. 

‪@rebeccabehrens Seriously the best Spam blog comment ever: “The leaves are turning from orange to purple and soon Festivus will be here.”

@HVYASociety: To young writers: “Write every day. It’s almost impossible not to get good at something you do every day for 20 years.” - Lauren Oliver

@Quote_Soup: If your ship doesn’t come in, swim out to it. - Jonathan Winters

‪@donalynbooks “I was told recently that what I do before starting a book is called pre-writing. I didn’t know that. I call it thinking.”—Kevin Henkes

@MissDahlELama: I used to watch Big Love and think “ZOMG WHY?!” but now I have CPs and I’m like, “Yeah, I could do that sister-wives thing.”

@dontgoodreads: Just keep telling yourself that GR is for readers. If they wanted you around, they’d call it GoodAuthors. Go write your book.

‪@ANNELAMOTT You don’t get into writing for fun. You want fun? Go to Chuck E Cheese, or get into curling. Write b/c you have to. You have a story to tell

@jonnygeller: Imagine all your characters had novels of their own, but you chose not to tell their stories this time. ‪#writingtip

@bradfordlit: I just sent 47 title possibilities to one of my authors. I think my work here is done. dusts hands off

@ANNELAMOTT: The great Barry Lopez wrote, “Everyone is held together with stories. That is all that is holding us together, stories and compassion.

@JoSVolpe: Remember that publishing, especially MG, is a marathon, not a sprint. Each book builds on the last. ‪#mglitchat

@sarahdessen: My advice to aspiring authors is to get yourself on a schedule. It keeps you accountable. You have to show up, every day.

@AdviceToWriters: Write what you need to write, not what is currently popular or what you think will sell. P.D. JAMES

@novaren: It’s just that every book I write or—let’s be honest—every book I think of writing just feels impossible at the start. Every time.

@taralazar: The value of a house is in location, location, location. The value of a manuscript is in revision, revision, revision.

@agent_ayesha: “Writing a long novel is like survival training. Physical strength is as necessary as artistic sensitivity.” — Haruki Murakami

Who are your favorite readers, writers, librarians, editors, agents & other industry-related individuals to follow on Twitter? I think I heart everything Anne Lamott shares.