One Word: Twitter

September 18, 2009 in: Writing

This started with a facebook post by my friend Jeanne. The challenge was to answer a number of questions about yourself (That’s what I love about facebook — it’s so interested in me, always asking my opinion!) This questionnaire was unique in that you could only use one word for each answer.

It proved a fun challenge to summarize myself so succinctly.

Then I logged in to my twitter account.  I had previously declared, in a public manner, I had no intention of being on twitter because:

1. I don’t have anything that interesting to share.

2. I don’t want anyone to know what I’m doing every minute of the day.

3. I don’t want to know that many details about anyone else.

But then…. I heard about celebrities who had their twitter identity stolen by others who secured their name first. Just in case someone wanted to co-opt Susan Mires’ identity, I enlisted the assistance of the newspaper’s college intern and entered the twitter universe.

At first, I didn’t tell anyone and faithfully tracked all of four friends I knew on twitter.

Then, this one-word concept captivated me. I’ve started to update my twitter status by condensing my entire day/mood/activities/state of mind/closely held opinions into one single word.

A writer not using words is like an artist not using paint. Or just one color. At a time. It’s an experiment, it will be fun for a while. I will allow myself to use up to three words if it’s a single thought, such as “looking up.”

So, if you’re on twitter, please let me know so I can follow you and if you’d like, follow my single subject tweets.

“God is heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few.” Ecclesiates 5:2