Someone asked me recently if I’d gotten lost on Facebook because this blog has been a ghost town the past few months. Twitter and Facebook have changed things for me to some extent.
In some ways I think they bring me closer to the people I care about. In others I think they put a wrench in meaningful communication. I’ll see a tweet about today being the best day ever, accompanied by a picture, only to find out weeks later the blurb on Twitter was meant as a wedding announcement.
I’ll go a week without checking in on Facebook and find I don’t know what’s happening in my friends’ lives. Someone will say, “Oh, you know what’s going on, I put it on Facebook,” and I’ll think, “I’ve seen you three times in the past two weeks and you didn’t even tell me you’d changed jobs because you’d put it in a status update.” Weird.
In the past when I had an interesting little nugget to share, I’d sit down to write the one sentence and it would turn into a 400-word blog post. Now it remains an interesting little nugget, just a few characters long. I’m not sure that’s a bad thing. It’s concise.
But no, I haven’t gotten lost on Facebook or Twitter. I’ve gotten lost in fiction. I’m working on a novel that I’m really excited about and I find that I pour all of my writing energy out into imaginary characters whom I love watching come to life on my computer screen.
I’ll keep you posted and I’ll keep blogging. I miss it.
For the past few months when I’ve gotten a bad case of writer’s block on the novel, I’ve just stopped writing and blogging altogether except for my posts over at Parenting.com. Then the longer I go without writing, the more I start to believe it’s because I’ve lost the ability to write at all. Like a castaway living in silence on an island with a volleyball named Wilson, I lose my words.
So my plan is to blog when the fiction world grows too thick to slog through. Whenever I’m not here, you’ll know I’m a step closer to delivering my project. Mom, I’m talking to you. You’re still reading, right?
And yes, this post will appear in my feed on Facebook.
I miss reading you here but I’m totally excited for you that you’re working on a novel! That’s awesome, Kathryn. 🙂
Good luck with your novel! That’s so exciting!
I dont see how people can write novels, blog, Tweet , and keep up with FB – and still have any sort of life beyond the computer. I try, but I can never handle all of them at once.
I never said I was handling them well. I’ve been wondering how you’re doing with everything.
Ugh! I’ve been trying to do the social networking and the writing and the parenting, but of course parenting has to come first so the others definitely get lost in the shuffle. I’m finished with revisions, though, and working on my query letter, so we’ll see. Hope your novel goes well.
How embarrassing – I just reread my comment and saw “dont” instead of “don’t”. I do know better!
At least you’re getting something accomplished. I can pick up toys, do dishes, and scrub the kitchen three times daily and still look around at 10pm and think, “Why didn’t I hear the TORNADO SIREN before the storm that clearly blew through my house?!?!”
Seasons, they come and go. That’s what feed readers are for 🙂
I’ve missed reading your posts here – you really do entertain me to no end – but I guess I can handle it if that means there’s something even bigger in the works! Best of luck on the novel!
I subscribe to just your and MBB’s posts on Parenting, because you’re the best writers there and always have the most helpful/challenging posts. (Maybe because your kids are older than mine?)
Whatever/whenever you choose to write, I’m happy to read it. 🙂
I so love Denene’s posts too! Thanks for lumping me in with her.
So exciting about the novel. Good luck! I am sure you will do extremely well, and I can’t wait to see where it goes!