Monday, January 16, 2012

MMWUC - Surviving without Twitter, Facebook, and Linked-in.

Stop the train. I want to get off. Well, you can't. However, you do have options. You can step off the communications train for a day per week. And I plan to do so.

I've been thinking about spending some time with my protagonist sans the Internet, which means no email, Twitter, Facebook, Linked-in, blogging; my brand new Kindle safely tucked in it's cover; and, dare I write it, my cell phone in the recharger. I want to go for a long walk with my protagonist without electrons pulsing through my body. Find out, what he would do if totally cut off from the world, able to just think about the important things in his life or my life, not be at beck-and-call for 392 emergency queries that each day brings. I did not know I was that indispensable.

Sometimes it is okay not to have to answer the tweet, the Facebook message, the Linked-in update, the 243 emails that arrive every day. Sometimes your protagonist has more to say to you than your sixth cousin, four times removed who found you on Facebook and now wants you to buy a spot of prime land in Chad. "Need a decision today." Funny how tomorrow, the ability to make the decision is still available.

"Let's go fishing, Stark."

"Hear they're biting down at the coast."

And so we talk or not and find out that sometimes a quieter life leads to better thoughts about a story than an avalanche of information.

1 comment:

Guilie Castillo said...

Yep, Rick--this is an excellent, excellent decision, and I think we all should do it, at least once in a while. Thanks for sharing!