TWITTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All right, peeps, today I wanted to tackle my version of the joys (and oys too) that the World Wide Web can bestow upon all of us, specifically through the Twitterverse.

TWITTER IS AWESOME.

There. I said it.

I admit, I was a skeptic at first, and it took me a LONG time to succumb to Twittermania. When I signed up for it, Terrell Owens was coming to visit the Bengals, so I signed up to specifically follow him and Chad Ochocinco Johnson Whatever. And then I found some agents. And then some writers. And then some friends. And then I was addicted.

Twitter holds an interesting power, an allure that can't really be identified in 140 characters or less. Agents, authors, fellow writers, sports figures, actors, directors, musicians, they're all on it. Except for Chris Evans *dammit*. It's like Facebook, but without all the annoying games.

Here are the reasons I love Twitter. They may be few, but they are epic.

1. Twitter makes one a better writer.
   
   Believe it or not, Twitter can help you improve your writing. Why? Because it forces you to choose your words carefully. And for ramblers like me, it forces you to filter your thoughts down to the most important aspects of your message. Vaguely coherently and with mondo abbreviations... But still. It's the principle of the thing. Twitter makes you more conscious of word choice. You learn to eliminate useless words (like "very," which is the most useless word in the English language) . You focus. Your writing becomes tighter. Trust me. What I took from Twitter helped me get rid of about 4000 pesky words.
   
   
2. Twitter makes one bolder.
   
   This one is probably the more important one for me. I'm a weenie. I do not like to speak unless spoken to. But on Twitter? I'm a chatty Cathy. Agents, authors, whoever. I'll tweet you. Aaaaaand if you tweet back, that's just even more fun. I've had actual conversations with awesome authors (not just OMG I LOVE YOU *SQUEEEEEEE*) I would never have had a chance to speak to otherwise. Colleen Lindsay tweeted me back once LOL. It's fun. And it helps to get a little name recognition. One agent I follow said she'd be more likely to read pages if she recognized your name from various social networking media (mostly Twitter). So? You're not losing anything by joining Twitter. Except perhaps valuable writing time... Hmm...
   
   
3. Agents/Authors use Twitter to pass along valuable info.
   
   There are quite a few agents, like Ginger Clark, who will tell you what they're looking for via Twitter. Where they are on queries. What they're reading now that they love. And one wonderful agent even shared her story about how it feels to be rejected by a writer. Yes, agents blog. But agents tweet a lot more. And they share valuable links, as do authors. And what's cool is that a lot of them will answer questions. I had a conversation with Sara Megibow concerning what she was looking for in SF right now. Did my stuff fit? Nope. But for anyone who wrote a space opera style SF, she's totally up your alley. She even shared books that she liked. Did my stuff fit? Not even close. I write hard SF, not space opera. But if you do? QUERY HER. She's SOOOO nice. *Also, I got re-reassurance from Joanna Volpe that synopses can be boring. So, huzzah!*

If these reasons aren't enough to at least make you think about joining Twitter, then I just don't know what to tell you. However, if you're on the glorious tweeting machine.. what are your reasons for using it?

Also, we have 50 followers!!!!!!!!!!!! You know what this means, right? CONTEST.

SO! All you have to do is leave a comment answering my Twitter question on this post by 11:59 PM Monday the 14th. No exceptions this time since I'm not as poor right now (LOL). On Tuesday I'll pick my winner. And depending on what restaurant you choose, you might get a chicken dinner. *OK that was bad. I promise not to do anything like that again. Maybe.*