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Scott Lax Blog

When Writers Jump the Tweet

This quote reminds me of writers that do more twittering than actual writing: "Desperate writers, who once by their cries of agony wrung tears from tender-hearted readers, come to prefer the glittering smiles of hostesses as hard as their marble mantelpieces." - Logan Pearsall Smith. (1865 – 1946)

I'll paraphrase, with apologies to the late Mr. Smith: "Desperate writers, who once by their cries of agony wrung tears from tender-hearted readers, come to prefer the sycophantic re-tweets of readers of their tweets, whose own tweets are as substantive as the ether through which they travel."

I'm talking about serious creative writers here, not those who use Twitter for marketing or promotion or fun. That's all well and good. Serious creative writers, though, are wasting their brain cells on twittering to readers that simply want to be that hostess with the glittering smile, that simply want to think they are connected to creativity, without actually producing anything.