The new beginning

It's five days since I had this notion of experimenting in some kind of organised fashion with Facebook, Twitter and the like. I had a brief tussle with myself before sitting down to write this post - it's sunny outside, I haven't done any 'real' writing yet today, all the usual reasons that my inner voice comes up with when I need to write a blog post - but I've got my fingers in my ears and I'm singing.  I've promised myself fifteen minutes of purple, cliché-laden, adverbial scribbling once I press the publish button, and no pudding if I don't!

I've been working with Himself pulling Himalayan balsam this week, where it's been going rampant in spots along rivers in Snowdonia and Anglesey. It's rather monotonous, but very satisfying, and it allows the mind free to mull over story ideas and plan the Kicking And Screaming experiment.

The first active steps I took were getting this domain name, a fresh Twitter account and a Google+. I'm leaving the Google+ to stew for a bit and concentrating on this blog and Twitter. Why did I choose Blogger? Mainly upon some advice in Rebecca Woodhead's column in September's Writing Magazine. Apparently it looks much better than Wordpress on mobile devices, which is as good a reason as any.

With Twitter, I set up the account, went through a list of the blogs I follow or check up on regularly, found which ones tweeted and followed them. I had a total panic when the first one I followed came back and followed me. Eeek! Even though I know (now) it was cleverly automated, suddenly there was Pressure! I was interested when she sent me a Direct Message; I'd had no idea such things were possible on Twitter (what sort of dinosaur does that make me sound like?). I also got followed by someone utterly random, who seems to have disappeared now - possibly he thought I was someone else?

On Thursday, still pulling balsam, I got myself into a mental state about what to tweet about. My tiny voice, out there in the Twittersphere? PANIC! I know, I know, idiotic! As well as the firm talking-to, I gave myself a treat - a late night sessions scouring Amazon for as many books as possible for less than £6 in total. I found Nicola Morgan's Tweet Right: the Sensible Person's Guide to Twitter and fell asleep reading it. Yesterday, I went to my new Twitter account and made a bunch of changes. I really recommend the book: her writing style is lovely, very clear and practical, and the book is exactly what it says on the tin. I haven't tweeted yet: I'm about to read about how to get started now.

So, what about my other Twitter accounts? I've deleted one, which was to do with an old job. The other is still there. I didn't tweet there, not once, but used it more as an information-gathering tool, following things like Radio4 and Radcliffe & Maconi's twitterstream. I say following; as I managed to remove the icon from the homescreen of my Blackberry I rarely followed anything. I can't see myself devoting time to two accounts, even if one is just reading rather than interacting, so I'll probably close the first account soon.

And real writing? Actually, it was quite a good week! Spotting that I'd been shortlisted in the Writing Magazine competition gave me a real boost.

I've got to go now: Himself has been cooking and pizza is nearly ready - totally home-made from the dough upwards. He does this every Saturday.

Plan for the next week: get tweeting and add a link to my Twitter self on this blog.

Has anyone else had TwitterFear? I'd love to know!