How Twitter can make you a better writer

Posted March 30th, 2009 by lmathews Comments

When I first signed up for Twitter, I wasn’t convinced it was for me. There’s so much social white noise, and finding insightful people to follow isn’t always an easy task. I also wasn’t sure that 140 characters was enough room to compose too many Tweets that were really worth sharing.

Now that I’ve really become active, however, I’m starting to see an unexpected benefit. Like so many other limiting factors, Twitter’s challenging 140 character maximum has become an opportunity to improve myself.

How, exactly?

I’m not content to post messages in that abhorrent web 2.0 shorthand. You won’t catch me tweeting things like UR, OMG, or ORLY – I could probably come up with more current examples, but this isn’t a language I care to learn. Kind of like Esperanto.

I hold myself to the same standards I do when I write anything: I follow grammatical and syntactical rules as closely as I can, and make sure my spelling is impeccable. Regardless of what the general perception of a tweet is, it’s still content that appears on a web page with my name on it so quality control is important.

Trying to make those controls work within Twitter’s limited space mean that sometimes I have to re-think an update three or four times before pulling the trigger. I may have to look for synonyms or completely re-structure a sentence.

It’s a bit like playing Tetris with words.

The well is a specific size, and I have words of varying lengths that need to fit in a logical order. Unlike Tetris, I can pause, remove a word, and drop in a new selection that is a better fit. As I continue playing the Twitter game, my brain becomes more nimble and able to fit the pieces into place more easily.

Treating Twitter like any other writing you do is key. If you wouldn’t want to publish a piece in a newspaper that looks like your tweet, rethink and rework it until you’re satisfied.

This post is a riff on a short twitter conversation between me (@leemathews) and @seanharrison.

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Tags: , ,   Posted in Windows

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  • Todd
    "...I’m not content to post messages in that abhorrent web 2.0 shorthand. You won’t catch me tweeting things like UR, OMG, or ORLY."

    Why not? Ironic use of l33t speak can be very effective and entertaining. AT&T has used it effectively in their multi-million dollar marketing campaigns and TV commercials.

    Here's the crib sheet so you can spice up your boring tweets!

    http://speaklolspeak.com/page/LOLspeak+101

    ;)
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