Monday, July 2, 2012

Facebook is not for Bloggers

Not for writers of any kind really, unless you're some kind of freaky...writes-nonstop-forgoing-sleep-food-sex-and-everything-else-type of writers and you really do have time to waste.  Because FB is really just a blog.  Or a mini-blog.  Most people don't write more than a few sentences per post.  It's a blog that your friends and relatives are required to read, because they can't pretend they don't know it exists, and if in person a topic comes up that you've been 'booking on lately and they have no idea what you're talking about, they're going to know you aren't reading.  The only way out is to not use it.

I...I haven't entirely succeeded at that.
Of course it wasn't such a danger when I first adopted, either.Yes it's fun.  It's nice as someone who likes to make people laugh to have a quick and easy outlet for that.  Anytime something funny pops in my head, I can just post it and get a few laughs in return, or at least a few likes.  That's the hook, of course.  Validation.  I admit I got sucked in, too.

I don't think I've written anything more than a paragraph or two since  FB became the time-gobbling singularity that it is.  That's no good.  I've taken FB vacations before, and it was refreshing, but I did always go back.

Thing is, I have a drive to write.  I like not only creating something worth reading but I like the process too, even when it is mostly fruitless.  I like doing just this, forming an idea in my head, simple as it may be, and putting it into a form that other people can understand and interpret.  That's all language is, and I revel in it.  But I relished the feedback more.  I like to know, right away, that  someone read it, understood what I was driving at, and appreciated my craft.

Patience.  I need to learn ever more patience, discipline, and self-control.
Odd that I feel like I already have a lot of those things, more than many other people, more than some other more-successful writers.

...Or maybe that's why I don't write....

So very very tired.  Kids are exhausting.  D has to give up the binkies.  All those articles that say pacifiers don't cause orthodontic problems, apparently not entirely true.  D has a major overbite already.  She's not thrilled about giving them up.  I explained to her that there would be no more binkies.  I'm pretty sure she understood the concept even though she didn't acknowledge that she understood because she's been avoiding taking a  nap all day.  J hasn't been helping. He has napped about 45 minutes today all day, the kid who can take 2, 2-hour naps some days.  And boy is he whiny too.  Yesterday he was an angel all day.  Very little whining.  playing, having fun, with us or by himself, slept all night.  Babies, mood swings, advil, coffee, *thunk*.