The Writing Journey: First, or Third-Person? That is the Question.

I had a moment yesterday, when I started to question what I was doing. It was very specific, concerning a project that I have been working on since late last year, when I decided to try my hand at writing fiction.

The end result is now within sight. I am writing the final chapter and conclusion. 

So, the end is within reach. 

However, yesterday I was on Twitter X, and noticed in my timeline there was a tweet asking about books written from a first-person perspective. The question was, what did people prefer, first or third person? Many replied, saying that they did not like first-person books at all. It seems to be like marmite, you either like it or you don't.

I had not given it much thought, but I was writing this book in first-person. I did so for the following reasons.

My Medium Writing Journey: The Little Bell Icon

My experiment with the writer's platform Medium continues.

Anyone who is a creative can become a slave to the little bell icon. That little bell icon. Twitter X has one, YouTube has one, Medium has one. I assume that all the social media platforms have them. It is a reminder of how popular, or not, you are.

 Image by Neal Brian from Pixabay

Let me explain.

Twitter X: Why I'm Not Celebrating My One Year Anniversary

There was a reply in my Twitter X notifications the other day, which told me that I should celebrate my one-year anniversary on the platform with a post.

Here's the message.

I chose not to use it. I couldn't see the point of it, as other than being a post, it did not offer any special privileges. I did not get the impression that it would be seen by many people. 

In fact, one of the reasons why I did not post it, was because of the Twitter X algorithm. To coincide with using the platform for one year, the algorithm had been playing games again. I had noticed a dramatic drop in the number of views on posts that I had sent. Apparently, and judging by the number of "do you see this post", many others have noticed this as well. Interaction numbers are well down, and there are times (many times) when you feel like you are talking to yourself. 

I was left wondering, what was "big" about it? I have gone from averaging about 50–100 views on a post, which isn't that many anyway, to 5-10. Perhaps they were all bots?

I only feel encouraged to post less, and go and do something more productive than scrolling the Twitter X feed, like actual writing.

When I Was a Lad: Billy's Boots, a Blast From the Past.

I was on Twitter X the other day, when I came across a post about the comics that were a big part of life for children back in the 1970s. The question was asked, how many did you buy? There was a picture of the comics available at the time. Not sure if it was all of them, but there were a lot. Most of them were for boys, some, like Sally, Bunty and Diana, for girls.

Here it is.

It's an impressive number. The ones that I remember buying were the Beano and Dandy. I also remember Look-in, Joe 90, Marvel and Spider-man. Most of the names here are familiar to me, and the chances are that I occasionally bought them. It has to be said, though, that I couldn't afford to buy all the ones that I probably wanted. 

What is Happening to Twitter X?

So, what is happening to Twitter X? I don't think that I will ever understand the way the algorithm of Twitter X works. I'm not the only one, given the comments from others that I find in my timeline.

Here are some things that I have noticed recently.

1) I keep seeing a lot of posts over and over again, often twenty-four to forty-eight hours old. There is no option on Twitter X to see posts in time or date order. There is also no option to see recent posts in chronological order. 

2) These old posts seem to be from the big accounts—users with tens of thousands of followers. By the time I see them, there are typically several thousand comments. It is not worth replying to, as no one will see it.

The Writing Process: The Word Count.

I noticed on Twitter X recently that authors will occasionally mention their word count for the day. Some are quite impressive, writing several thousand words in a day. I'm not that productive, and I felt for some time that I was more of a binge writer than someone who could just write every day. However, I have tried to change this, and that was because of Covid.

When I tested positive for Covid, I decided that while under the weather, I would try to do two things. The first was to catch up on my reading. I have many books that I want to read, but just don't get around to it. Second, I was going to write more consistently. I ended up doing neither. I did some reading, but not much. Furthermore, I did no writing at all.  

For two to three weeks, I just waited for Covid to do its thing and then clear up. Fortunately, It did, but then I thought about all that wasted time. I did very little because I did not feel like doing anything, but this wasn't just procrastination. I did think about what I should be doing, and then I set a goal that I would write every day. So far, that is what I have been doing. In the past, I have never really thought about doing a daily word count, but now that is what I'm doing.

So, in the last four days, my numbers are 1050, 1183, 2286 and so far today, 1058.

This is writing on two WIP. One, is my first attempt at fiction. I will write more about this in due course. The second is non-fiction. 

Somebody posted on Twitter X the writer Ian Fleming's (he of James Bond fame), daily routine. Here it is.

Of course, it does help that he was a successful author and making decent money. For most of us, it is not realistic, but the general principle to write something each day if you can is a good one. 

What works about writing every day, if you can do it, is that the numbers soon add up. Average 1000 words a day, and that is 365,000 in a year, and potentially three or four books. Of course, you need to have the ideas, and then there is all the editing, the promoting, etc, etc. So, it is never that easy as life, and procrastination gets in the way. However, while there is not much I can do about life getting in the way at the moment, I can do more to avoid procrastination.

The twelve posts of Christmas...day seven. When you get the writing itch, you have to scratch it.

So, it's Christmas Day, and I'm writing a blog post. 

It will just be a quick one today, because if you feel the urge to write, then you just have to. This happened to me last night, Christmas Eve, but not for the blog, for a story that I am in the process of writing, my first attempt at fiction. 

Here's what happened.

I fell asleep last night after an early evening carbohydrate rush took over. I woke up around ten and pretty soon I wasn't sleepy at all, I started to think about something that had been on my mind about the story that I am writing. That was the opening line and first few pages. I've read that it should be dramatic, set the scene for what's to come. I looked at the first page and the opening line of fiction books that I owned. They all had a fairly dramatic start. Authors on Twitter X comment on this occasionally, and I looked at what I had written so far. The start wasn't that dramatic, I would even say it was mundane, I needed something better.

The thought that suddenly came to me, late night Christmas Eve, was around a character that I had planned to introduce later in the story. It occurred to me that it would make a good opening to the story, so I got writing. Several hundred words later, I think it works. Time will tell.

I also discovered something else recently about my own writing. I watched an interview recently with the author Cheryl Strayed, who described herself as a binge writer. She is not one for writing every day, she seems to write better when the inspiration is there to do so, and I suppose when the ideas are ready to flow. Others require the commitment of writing every day. I think I am more of a binge writer than the latter, although I try to mix both. Science says that binge writing is bad for you, who would have thought?

Binge writing

All I know is that when it comes to having ideas, I work better when they just come to me. I struggle when I try to force things. 

It was the same when I was at school.

 

If I get the urge to write more today, like an itch, I just might struggle to resist the temptation to scratch it.

Merry Christmas!

 

The Twelve Posts of Christmas: Day Five. Marshmallow or Book?

 A while back, someone posted the image below on Twitter X. It speaks for itself.

We live in a world where you can buy a book, new, for a few pounds or less. Self-published are often offered for free. Buying a book could well be one of the cheapest forms of entertainment around at the moment. You can spend £5 to £10 on a magazine these days.

Then I came across this picture.

A marshmallow for £3.95? I'd rather buy a book, or maybe two for that. Then there is the bargain-basement, or charity shops, car boot sales, flea markets…

The Twelve Posts of Christmas: Day Four. Andy Pandy is Coming to Play.

Amazingly, this is my most viewed tweet on Twitter X in 2023 and for a brief period, a few weeks after posting, it was trending.  It has 7200 views. Go figure.

Andy Pandy. pic.twitter.com/xeZTauSFc6

— Lost In Words (@LostInWords2023) November 9, 2023

Andy Pandy (1950)

Each episode began:

Andy Pandy is coming to play, la, la-la, la, la-la,
Andy Pandy’s here today, la, la-la, la-la.

And ended:

Time to stop play, just for today,
Andy and Teddy must now go away.
Time to stop play, just for today
Andy is waving goodbye …, goodbye …, goodbye.

If you grew up in the 1950s or 1960s, this was most likely part of your childhood. Not that there was much to watch on television. Andy Pandy is coming to play. Don't have nightmares.

The Twelve Posts of Christmas: Day Three. A Billion Kindle Unlimited Reads

Just to say right at the start of this Christmas post, the billion reads on Kindle Unlimited does not refer to my book. I wish! No, it refers to a tweet I came across on Twitter X yesterday (I'm still going to call it a tweet regardless of what Elon says). 

Here's the tweet.

That is over one billion reads, which is remarkable.

Twitter X Analytics: How Do They Work? I Wish I Knew!

One of the mysteries of being on Twitter, or its new name X, is figuring out how the algorithm works and making sense of Twitter analytics. For the last three months I have been getting a message like this.

Now, I have Tweeted, not a lot, but more than zero. I've even posted this as a Tweet complete with the image above and according to Twitter X, people do like photos. Obviously not enough for X (formerly known as Twitter) analytics to pick up.

 It does say on the X (formerly known as Twitter) analytics page that they are working on improvements. They even offer a link to the new version of account analytics beta, but when you click on it, you get taken to Twitter. X analytics remains a mystery.

There are many complaints about how Twitter X works right now, with some thinking that it favours the bigger, paid for accounts. Elon wants to charge us all a quid a year to have access. Right now, I don't think it offers enough to be worth that much.

Until You Realise, It's Just a Story

43 years ago today, the band Teardrop Explodes released their debut album Kilimanjaro. An unofficial Twitter fan account describes their music as bubblegum trance music, psychedelic soul music. Not sure what it is, but it is very pop and melodic, very 1980s post punk, new wave. It was music that I had long forgotten about until I listened again today.  

Music is subjective, so just to say that having rediscovered this today, it is like finding something new. I will be reacquainting myself with their back catalogue of music for a few days now. It seems to have stood the test of time.

As they say. Until you realise, it's just a story.

A Little Admin: Setting Up a Twitter "X" Feed

I've been meaning to set up a Twitter feed to the blog (I know Musk has decided to call it X, but hardly anyone does, so I think I will stick with Twitter). But I only got around to it yesterday. In itself, it was quite straightforward to do once I had found the instructions on the web. So, the Twitter feed can be seen at the bottom right of the blog.

However, there are one or two problems with it, thanks to Elon's new Twitter rules.

First, I noticed today that the Twitter feed was not showing any Tweets. When you click on the Twitter link, it simply takes you to the Twitter login.  This is Musk's new rule, to see any Tweets you have to be logged in. However, I noticed that when I logged in to Twitter, the tweets on the blog can be seen, but I assume that if anyone else clicked on them, you will still be presented with the Twitter login. 

So, I don't think there is anything that can be done about that.  Musk has his new rules, including plans to charge everyone a monthly fee to use “X”.  

I think if that happens, I probably won't be using Twitter “X” anyway, but we will see.

The Steps of Balamand University

I was on Twitter (or X as Musk would prefer it) this morning when I came across this picture.

The steps of Balamand University, Lebanon.

How original and clever. Wonderful. 

Don't really need to say much more.