All in a Twitter

This week I joined Twitter. In the last few months various people have suggested that somebody whowishes to call herself an author should get herself 'out there'.  Until a few days ago I ignored thesesuggestions.  After all, I've only just settledinto Facebook.  And that's taken threeyears – with Timeline still being ignored. I thought I was being cutting edge starting a blog (it's bad enoughwandering about trying to find New Post).  Twitter too? That sounded like an owl hooting. Anyway, I digress. 
So I signed up.  And did myfirst tweet.  'You'll have to be clevererthan that,' a prompt appeared, 'you only have 140 characters.'  140 characters?  Twitter is expecting a writer whose fingers spewthousands of words to sum up a statement in 140 characters?  Flash fiction isn't my forte, so Twitter andI were definitely not off to a good start. 
As my genre is contemporary romance (oh all right, chick lit ifyou insist) I decided to kick off with those two words in the search box.  And up came Twitter's suggestions on who Ishould follow – fellow lovers of the written word...romantics...writers...andnaturally chick lit fans.  I beganclicking the button to follow.  After awhile, the eyes glazed.  But I let themouse keep on clicking.  First lesson onTwitter: pay attention to who you are following.  I was astounded to receive messages from'chicks' and lots of tips on spit and swallow. Obviously nothing to do with cuckoos or feathered friends.  A bit of unfollowing hastily took place. 
Forty-eight hours later I was quietly congratulating myself.  I'd even discovered a link and managed toopen it – how exciting!  But not quitethe thrill I was looking for.  Secondlesson on Twitter: don't open a link unless you know who sent it.  Suddenly I was receiving hundreds of nastymessages and, even worse, so were my followers...all apparently from me!  By this point the urge to take Twitter andmetaphorically flush it down the toilet was overwhelmingly strong. 
A spot of password changing then took place.  After that I wondered why I couldn't sign backin.  Transpired I'd mis-typed Twitter forTitter.  In another three years or so I'msure I'll be tweeting like a pro. Meanwhile, tweets are being typed with one finger.  But I'm too polite to say which one....