Eaton Hamilton

I came out this weekend (during a mini talk at VPL) as a writer who uses the internet while writing–maybe 9/10s internet to 1/10 writing. Write a sentence, hang out on FB. I like FB–except when I don’t–and I longed for this behemoth time-waster to work for me. I’m far too old to stand for the castigation of the thousand mini-blocks we go through as writers every day ( I could be a better writer. So and so is a better writer; she writes 5000 words a day, while I barely touch a page. I don’t deserve to even be a writer. I wish I was a better writer. If I just sit here and write, I’ll be better. If I stay off social media. If I get that app that keeps you off social media. If I just follow Natalie Goldberg’s ideas, I’ll be better. If I just work through some writing prompts, the juices will start to flow. Okay, a paragraph. That’s the idea I was going for, but it wasn’t what I wanted to convey. How much fluff is in that sentence anyhow? Why would anybody read this? I shouldn’t have gone for that latte wth Mark. I don’t know what to write next, I really don’t. I’m stumped. Why did my character just jump off that bridge? Oh yeah, because I’m her author. I’d jump, too), so I made social media a part of getting good results. I write the sentence or paragraph then ruminate about it while surfing, and this small jaunt serves me just as it also serves me to leave a few months between ms. drafts. I get a mini-contemplative break, enough to break open a stanza or sentence.

Here’s a HuffPost piece by Maddie Crum who also use social media to their advantage, though for them it’s about publicity:

Less than 3’ing the internet