Twitter - Thoughts on Following & #FollowFriday

This post is about how I feel towards twitter, so it's a purely personal view. I wonder if readers will agree.

HikingArtist.com

Following You on Twitter 

Twitter was created primarily as a social media site, and much of its content is indeed social. 'Which is nice.' It's fun to read other people's news, views and recommendations, and to reply to some. Like chatting to someone you meet on the bus, in the library, outside school. There may be links to interesting/informative/funny articles or pictures, and recommendations to follow others, and I might check them out and follow if I fancy, widening my range of follows and sometimes going through them to see if there's anyone I might want to unfollow. 

If I unfollow you, though, it's not an insult. It may be that you tweet only about things you'd like me to buy, or you repeat the same tweets over and over again, you tweet every five minutes or you've changed tack and lost my attention. I may come back later.

Similarly, if I don't follow back immediately, it's not an insult. Maybe I don't share your interests (as shown in your list of tweets) or maybe there's a hint of language which I don't like to read. (Being, as I've said before, something of a prude.)

I do like to comment on people's tweets where I feel strongly or especially enjoy them or find them useful. Most of us surely love to think someone's read our tweet and has something to say to us. If someone's unwell, or has a life hiccup, I'll send cybersympathy. If I know the answer to a question, I'll write it. And as for competitions, if the prize is attractive I'll usually have a go. Numbers of entries can be low, even if the setter has a long list of followers.

Following Me on Twitter


I'm inordinately pleased to have new followers, even if you're a business and will quickly unfollow if I don't respond or follow back. I don't get intense about numbers of followers otherwise I guess I'd make more use of hashtags to scoop up more. Perhaps that's a mistake. 


Even more pleasing is if people respond to something I've written. It makes a person feel noticed and appreciated. And if anyone should retweet me, well that's like being given a large bar of Toblerone (but lasts longer).


I've decided to opt out of Fllwrs (who tell you who has recently followed and unfollowed). This is partly because of suspicion that there may be a connection with spam, but also because I don't want especially to know who's unfollowed so I can't be miffed. Bye bye techno geeks, tarpaulin providers, Scottish holiday firms who were on my unfollowed list before.

Alan Levine

Follow Friday

#ff is interesting. I try to use it at least every other Friday. As everyone knows, it's a way of passing on to followers some people who are good to follow for whatever reason. Still, it seems to have turned into just a way of expressing appreciation and it's good to get a mention. What's funny is, if someone does a #ff to as many people as will fit in the tweet, some of those will retweet the whole list, making it seem that they are appreciating them. If you see what I mean. My #ff lists have gone in some interesting directions and this is certainly not a complaint!

Writing Courses - What I Hope to Find

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The very first writing course I followed was a correspondence type many years ago. The subject was non-fiction, and the promise was a full refund if the fee was not recouped by sales during the course. There was a good deal of positive feedback latterly, and the tutor seemed confident that I'd be published, but there was no success with magazines at the time. Gathering and returning all the course materials as demanded, I received a refund - but I kept writing. Should I have felt guilty about the refund, given that I covered the fee in sales fairly soon afterwards?

By David Blackwell 

The most recent course has been for short story writing for more literary and competition type work, with the aim of ending up with a story of publishable standard. Again, I completed all the assignments and received a good deal of useful feedback, although the main piece of work is not quite up to standard as yet. It's a 'work in progress'.




Reviewing the outcome and range of emotions during the course, I've compiled a list of ten things which I  would hope for in a writing course.


 1  In the blurb, a clear statement of the aims for achievement by the end.


 2  Again in the blurb, a comment about the optimum level of prior experience. Is it suitable 
          for beginners, for example, or writers just starting to be successful, or those already 
          well on their way?


 3  Unambiguous info about the expected length of the course, and any restrictions on the
          time allowed.


 4  Statement about what feedback the student can expect during the course, e.g.  from tutor 
          and other students, and whether each student will be asked to give feedback to others.

by Frankie Kangas

 5  Advice on how to give considered and constructive feedback. (Says
          she after a bit of a battering - though in the latest course this advice 
          was certainly given clearly.)


 6  Opportunities to study successful work and pieces which are considered 
          great writing.


 7  Ongoing feedback which picks up problems and gives pointers towards addressing them.
          Personally, I feel that occasional specifics are very helpful, e.g. when an issue with
          dialogue is flagged up, an example of what would be better (even if just one line).


 8  At the end of the course, a summary of how far the tutor feels the student has progressed
          (not "Don't give up the day job" though.)


 9  Suggestions for further study, individualised for the student if time/fee permits.


10 Finally, if there is work of reasonable standard, suggestions as to where it might be
          submitted when polished, so the student can research those opportunities.


Thanks for reading this. I'd be very interested to hear whether anyone who's currently on a course, or who has recently completed one, agrees with these points or has any to add.
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My Suite 101 Articles for Students and Teachers

There are just over 60 of my articles on Suite 101, and topics are varied. Here are links to a few which offer suggestions for older students and for teachers. I hope there'll be something there which is useful for you.


For Students

Essay titles: compare, discuss, assess - what the key terms mean

Students of high ability: manage in class and get best grades   


Very bright students: keep your friends and still get good grades

Gain maximum benefit from every lecture, to help improve grades 
             


For Teachers


Children who can't concentrate: teacher tips for how to help

Improving students' listening skills - some tips for teachers 


Reading with comprehension: ensuring children absorb text content


Young students, poor concentration: structure for a class programme

Reluctant readers: tips for parents and teachers to encourage them


The rest of the articles on my site include lots of vegetarian recipes, some parenting suggestions, biography (Adam Faith, Carrington, Gertler), the Vulcan bomber, and much else besides.
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Course, Week 5 - nearly there

Some more excellent advice in the week's course notes, all taken to heart. Two very pleasing critiques received from fellow students, with one describing my half-finished work as 'monumentally creepy' - just what I was aiming for, fortunately! Submission this week was the finished story - not necessarily in its final form but showing how it all works out, and I did that, surprising myself with incorporating a death - and I've never used 'creepy' or death in a story before. So something is changing.
         Another task was to produce a shorter story from scratch in one go, which I have done. No idea where the story came from, apart from a memorable (for all the wrong reasons) moment in my mid-teens involving a spider. The story just, as they say, told itself. 
         Now both of these stories need some going over. I have emailed them to our gas fitter! He is a keen reader, especially creepy, and asked if he could see them.
         The final week will involve critiquing by and for each student - I expect everyone, like me, is bracing themselves. This is a good course, stirring up the waters and producing surprising results.

Short Story Writing Course - week four

All exercises duly completed, including providing feedback on two anonymous part-stories. One was difficult to visualise because the characters' physical positions in relation to one another were not clear. I could visualise the characters themselves, though, and there was a great twist at the end of the plot summary which I didn't see coming. The other posed a mystery from the start which hadn't been revealed in the text so far but which set me trying to guess; well written and the secondary character easy to visualise but the main character still mysterious. Don't yet know if we get to see the finished works.

A short story to be listened to online - very strange and dramatic, marked changes of pace - slow, then building to fast, and then dream-like slow pace allowing something frightful to be followed with dispassionate interest. Looking at characterisation, and how dialogue illustrates it, in this module, getting to know my characters more deeply and realising I haven't done this sufficiently in the past.

Definitely feel that I'm stepping back and looking at the short story in a completely different light, as well as realising the need for something a lot more intense than before. But beginning to think I could do this.

Week Three

So on to week three of this short story writing course. This looked at how to leave blanks in the narrative to allow the reader's imagination to work, another aspect I'd not really considered before.

There was also a short story from the tutor's own collection; chilling, but with a feast for the senses coupled with never actually mentioning the most important fact about the characters - this is worked out by the reader towards the end. Another example of the principle was in the link given to a prize-winning story, which again left me with a sense of satisfaction but wishful thinking about my own work.

The piece to submit was further work on the short story begun earlier. Having distilled the points from the two critiques, and absorbed the 'lesson' of this part of the course, I deleted some weak bits which didn't move the story forward or which told too much, tried to keep just the one point of view, and adjusted expressions which had tripped up the critics. By the time I'd done all the other exercises, I got round only to progressing the story a little further, and submitted it in the hope of more positive, less negative feedback this time.

I do get it, and realise how meandering and flat my earlier work has been. Spurred on by this, and by hearing that one of our Southampton Writing Buddies, Jacqueline Field, has just been shortlisted in the Writers' News competition (as well as another of her works being runner-up in one of their comps about 3 months ago), it's onwards and upwards at the half-way stage of the course.

Week Two of the Course

The second part of the short story writing course caused mixed feelings. I duly used the link provided to read a most excellent prize-winning and atmospheric story (cue "I could never write like that".) The writing exercises were completed too (not to be submitted at this stage, but filed away). I had submitted a draft of the first 800 words of a story, with the task being not to worry too much about editing at this stage, and submitted my feedback on the story openings buzzed over from the tutor.

Then - oh heck. Encouraging feedback from the tutor, with some aspects to consider including an unexpected change of point of view. Yes, I know, a common mistake. One of the students' feedback comments kindly mixed positive with problems and suggestions, and agreed in some places with the tutor's own opinion. The other feedback (almost as long as the original piece) piled comment upon comment about what didn't gel, what didn't make sense, what trips the reader up and so on, with the point-of-view comment only too incisive (and repeated).

It's a funny thing with writers. As a group we seem to lack confidence; even the most prolific and successful suffer. Which I guess is a spur to keep up standards or risk falling victim to failure. This review certainly knocked me for six. After all, it was supposed to be only a draft. Like most students I suppose, I found it hard to take such a wealth of criticism, wrote to the tutor saying maybe I had bitten off more than I could chew, and whinged to my family and my writing group. All-round reassurance followed, and given a few days to stop sulking, I have now listed from each critique the points which I accept and to which attention will be given in the next draft. Just as planned, no doubt!

So, on to week three, about which I'll write soon (getting a bit behind, but will catch up). As a psychologist who has run courses for teachers, I know all about negative/positive feedback, how students often feel after the initial flush of enthusiasm about a course, and how important it is to keep them on track and looking ahead with confidence. Physician, heal thyself and all that. And I shall.