Wow! It's been a while. Exam time is CRAZY! Days go by when I don't so much forget to post on Twitter, but I just can't find the time. And even when I do, I am so exhausted, that I can't muster up the energy to set up my computer, boot it and post.
I never realized how difficult writing a Twitter novel could be. The time commitment is but one aspect of the difficulty. The other (and perhaps most difficult aspect) is in crunching down a tapestry as rich as a novel into a series of short posts. The challenge (as I've said before) is to get the story told, not only in 140 character bites, but in few enough posts per day to avoid spamming your followers.
Gaining followers is another enigma of Twitter I have yet to figure out. I had 4 at one point and I'm listed twice, but 2 of my followers were businesses. Two of them have since left. I realize that those following my story are not exclusive to my followers, that there could be any number of people following me (please, God), without actually "following" me.
On the brighter side, I think I've mastered hash tags. I've begun to post updates to my FaceBook site. I think I've also figured out a fix for the pieces of writing of which I am proud but got cut in the planned postings. I have started posting additional prose to my web site. I'm hoping that, when I get the time to print and marked Phase Shift, that the site and the "twovel" will help to make me seem interested, devoted, and help to market me and my manuscript. In addition, I'm getting up the courage to volunteer to present a workshop on writing a Twitter novel at next year's YRDSB Writers' Symposium, which might help with my resume and to market me should I feel like putting myself through the ordeal that is the transfer process next year.
At any rate, no matter how many readers and/or followers I have, I'm having fun and trying to get my head into my writing space to continue with The Revenant. At one point I thought I might have Zulu enroll in school to get nearer to the Alma reincarnate, thought that might be too much like TV's Vampire Diaries. In a twist, maybe the Alma reincarnate isn't a reincarnate but Alma herself. I wanted to keep it inside the backdrop of high school as I'd hoped to cash in on the youth fiction craze, but maybe it would work better if it were in a University millieu as then Zulu wouldn't have to register. He could vet all of "Alma's" classes and get to know her that way. Look at all of the high school vampire series anyway. Most of them join high school to blend in. I need a hook. Something to set my story apart from all the others. Though I have to admit, that would give me a frame in which to write about some of my brain-numbing experiences being a high school teacher.
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