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Recently the dynamics on commercial social media have become…a tad weird. So yesterday, after one too many hacking episodes, privacy scares, and encounters with online trolls, I took the plunge and deactivated my Facebook account. I’ll miss the ease of staying in touch with certain folks (and of course I’ll miss “Yoga with Baby Goats” and other video gems), but it was long past time to cut my ties with advertising-supported social media.

I started feeling conflicted about commercial social media as far back as 2013, when I wrote “Is Social Media Developing a Personality Disorder?” Five years later, the answer (for me, anyway) is an emphatic “Yes.”

Here at TKZ we made a firm decision at the outset not to go down the commercial advertising route. It’s wonderful that out little corner of the cyber sphere continues to serve as a little oasis of calm amidst the winds of the social media Furies.

I’ll miss seeing everyone on Facebook, of course. And I’ll really miss getting my daily dose of baby goats.

How about you? Is anyone else rethinking their relationship to social media these days?

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Let’s revisit a little test that was first introduced at this blog by own TKZ alumnus Joe Moore back in 2010: the “Page 69 Test”.

So, what is the Page 69 Test? Quoting Joe:

(It is)…a trick to help everyone in choosing a book to read.
Picture yourself standing at the new release table in your local bookstore. You see a bunch of new arrivals. Some authors you’ve heard of, some names are new. How do you choose? According to John Sutherland, author of How to read a novel, you don’t judge a book by its cover.

 

Dust jackets, blurbs, shoutlines, critics’ commendations (“quote whores”, as they are called in the video/DVD business) all jostle for the browser’s attention. But I recommend ignoring the hucksters’ shouts and applying instead the McLuhan test.

 

Marshall McLuhan, the guru of The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962), recommends that the browser turn to page 69 of any book and read it. If you like that page, buy the book. It works. Rule One, then: browse powerfully and read page 69.

Want to try it? Grab one of your books (or a book you’re reading) and turn to page 69. Does it grab your interest? Would you buy that book, based on what’s written on page 69?

Which is more difficult for you to write: endings or beginnings? How many drafts does it typically take you to settle on a final version?

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Pick the animal or creature that best conveys your writing strength. Is it a spider weaving a mysterious, complex web? A wild Mustang thundering across the Great Plains, free of constraints? A jungle cat hidden in the tall grass at the edge of the Serengeti, stalking its story prey?

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Have you discovered any great new books recently? What are you reading this week? Anything you can recommend to the rest of us?

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Let’s go around our virtual room and hear what everyone’s working on these days. Tell us the title of your current project and a lit bit about the story. Time to toot your own horn!

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Reader Friday has a friend who is a mother to be, and she wants to start collecting a library of children’s literature to read aloud to her Little One. Which books would you put on a “must read” list for children?

Whenever the “boys in the back room” go on strike and fresh writing ideas are nowhere to be found, social media can sometimes provide a quick injection of inspiration. It can also  function as a needed cattle prod to getting off one’s lazy caboose.

A late-night surfing safari turned up a few of these little gems from social media cicerones:

From the “Thing Could Be Worse” files

How writers should handle bad reviews

“You are without a doubt the worst writer I’ve ever heard of.”

“But you HAVE heard of me.”

Thanks, we think 

Instead of angsting over your inner clouds, spread a little sunshine 

And know this: we are all in this together

What about you? Do you ever turn to the web for uplift or creative inspiration? Any good sources you can share with us?

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Are you struggling with that dreaded first page of a story? Remember that you can submit your first page for an anonymous critique by one of the TKZ writers and editors. For details on how to submit your first page, see First-page critiques.

Happy writing in the New Year!

Hey, It Could Happen To Anyone

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On this day in 1493, Italian explorer Christopher Columbus, sailing near the Dominican Republic, saw three “mermaids”–actually, they were manatees, corpulent marine mammals.

Columbus relayed the disappointing news that these mermaids were “not half as beautiful as they are painted.”

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