Social Networking: A Love/Hate Thing

I just took a several day break from Facebook. Now, I love Facebook. I love chatting with people and seeing quickly what so many of my friends are up to at any given time. It's also a great way to see what's going on in the wider world and how people feel about things. Great way to tune in to reality. The problem is: time! Wow, it's a time sucker.

Particularly when I get involved in a conversation, I spend far too much time debating and pondering and it invades my off-line time, as well.

It can also suddenly feel like a huge personal space invasion. On days, I consider deleting the page and walking away. I doubt I will. I like the connection when I want it.

Over the several days I made myself step away, I became fully engrossed in finishing my rewrite of the current WIP. In fact, I was so fully engrossed, I abandoned FB (and other places) longer than I intended. But I got it done, at least the handwritten additions for the spots that were lacking fullness.

It felt wonderful enough to be so obsessed with my work that I'm only edging back into the social scene gently. Those pages still need to be typed. Then edited. Then passed to a few beta readers. Then re-edited. And several other WsIP are sitting and waiting for my time.

Writing and networking is a huge balancing game for a writer. If we hide too far deep in our little caves, we lose track of the gorgeous, full reality that infuses our work, and that's a shame. If we get too involved in that gorgeous, full reality, we don't have enough time to write it! That's a crime! ;-)

So, sometimes I'll be seeing you around. Other times I won't. Yes, I do feel sorry for a writer's friends, my own included.