Twitter and 140 Character Limit
Low word counts have never been an issue for me. As evidenced on my personal blog, I'm wordy. It is far more common for me to publish a post with more than a thousand words than one with less than a hundred.
One of the reasons I hesitated to join Twitter was the per message limit of 140 characters. I remarked to a friend, "What do I have to say in 140 characters?"
When I began using Twitter daily, I have discovered the beauty of Twitter is the format. Limiting thoughts to 140 characters makes for creative use of language. Posting a link or replying to a fellow Twitter user? The URL or @yourfriend counts against your limit.
Very often, I find myself typing out my Tweet and hitting the limit long before I have made my point.
The process of editing my Tweets down to it's essence is a valuable writing exercise. I find myself cutting adverbs in favor of stronger verbs. I cut out padding that doesn't add meaning. I haven't done so much brutal self editing since I took poetry workshop in high school.
Will I abandon my wordy ways? Not bloody likely. I've been writing many, many words for two decades. But using Twitter has made me rethink my word choices when composing blog posts. Being a better writer is was one of my primary goals when I began blogging, so maybe it will be my adventures @TinaKubala will lead to better writing, and maybe a novel or two.
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