I finally have taken the plunge and set up my account on Twitter. It’s still amazing to me that I have successfully avoided the Twitter craze for as long as I have. It also amazes me how ignorant I am to how it all works.
Setting up my profile was very easy to do with the hardest part being the process of deciding on a username that wasn’t already taken: JamesAlexander – No, James_Alexander – No (How many of me are out there?), Alexander_James – No, JAlexander – Of course not, I even tried James_Alexander1979 – No again. At that point I banged my head against the keyboard, mashing all the keys and leaving strange indents in my forehead to get username laksdjfajofiwej and guess what? If you guessed it wasn’t taken, you’re right. But why would I want that for a username?
In the end, I wound up with JAlexander_2012. I know – not extremely original, but better then laksdjfajofiwej.
With all that out of the way, I proceeded to upload my photo – which I had to resize multiple times to get Twitter to accept. Proud, I leaned back in my chair admiring my handiwork. And there it was. The number 0 staring back at me for the number of tweets I have made. I needed to take care of that immediately! 140 characters are all I need. That should be easy!
*Crickets*
OK, 140 characters and NO followers listed. What do I tweet about? I never realized I’d have that dilemma. So I thought to myself, Really? C’mon! You can do this!
*Crickets*
Finally, with no genius ideas coming to mind, I decided I’d do what I do when I write and hit a wall of self-doubt or a block – just write anything! This is what my first tweet was (Get ready! It’s amazing!):
“This is the first tweet of my life!”
Yes, lame. I know. But it did get the ball rolling – at least until my next tweet. So there is my writing tip – buried in this post. If you don’t know what to write or are in a block – write. Who cares if it’s garbage? It can always be edited later. True, in my case, my first Twitter post will haunt me forever, but I’m proud of it. First, I’m on Twitter, which I never thought I would be, second, I pushed past my First Twitter Post phobia, and third, I can’t post any worse of tweet than that. So my only way is up from there.
I’d love some followers on Twitter where I will be posting news on my current work as well as cool things about my projects I have already completed. Who knows – maybe someday I’ll post something witty!
