Rationing My Social Media Time

Photo by Laxis, SXC

I have this ritual when I log into the internet every day from home. First the e mail, then Facebook and twitter/tweetdeck. And off I go, reading and responding to new mail, tweets, FB comments and posts, tweeting, reading people's blogs, commenting, retweeting good ones....in there somewhere I also usually scan eBay for a few of my favorite categories (runway earrings anyone?Ancient Egyptian-related ephemera? LOL), peek to see how my novels are doing (did I become a NYT Bestseller overnight? No, ok then)...browse Dear Author, Den of Geek, Smart BitchesTrashy Books and i09, tweet good stuff....check out youtube videos...tweet....

Wait! Have I written word one of any novel yet in all this hurly-burly??? Um, no. See my theory is that I'll ease my way into the writing mood by having all this fun on the internet and then put in a solid chunk of time writing. This is remarkably similar to my theory that eating one M&M doesn't lead to eating the entire bag or that Nutella is nutritious and therefore I need jars of it in my daily diet. (Well, not jars, but you get the idea, right?) Hey, Einstein explored the theory of relativity and I'm exploring the theory of connectivity...on the interwebz.

Some days I just go with the flow and surf the web as long as I want to. Other days I set a timer and stop in an hour. That actually seems to be about as long as I "need" to check in on all the people and places and stuff I've been missing all day at the day job. And if I have a scene I reallyshould write because either I'm all fired up about it and The Muse (have I mentioned her yet today?) gets toe tappingly impatient and leaves if I don't get going and use the creative zeal she's dished up...or if I'm on a deadline and have edits to turn in, then I go straight to the WORD files and never even open the e mail or the internet until I've written a LOT of words.

Sometimes I do ask my friends to gently shoo me off twitter if I need to be writing and they're very kindly about it...but then like a kid sitting on the stairs listening to the party, I have a tendency to sneak back in.  Fellow Word Whore Jeffe called me on that behavior last week lol! And I'm glad she did. See her Five Tips for using social media on a time budget, which was Sunday's WW post.

Have I mentioned I'm not good at budgeting either? Oops, well, that's another blog...

Most Recent eBay Find - 5" of Blinginess