Blogging for Writers

Writer's Challenge: From Tweet to Piece? Day 3

"When you find the right guy you need to stick with him until he figures it out." - Erin Hogan referring to Rick Barnes 

That quote has been writing/thinking fodder for three days. Can I turn that quote I tweeted into a workable piece/post? Here's the product of day 3: 30 minutes on elliptical today. Found an inspirational post on copyblogger.com yesterday that helped clarify thinking on this project. Can't remember exact post and didn't spend too much time looking for it. (Yea me!)

During quick peak at copyblogger.com did find a different post that helped me today. How to Write an Article in 20 Minutes by Jim Estell. What a perfect fit for my current mindset. In the post I recognized things I was already doing. (Validation!) I also took away a gem - "Sometimes I have to give up a point to write a good article." Excellent. I will go with the four points I had outlined at the start of this session and work on them tomorrow. I feel so productive - easily humored.

Writer's Challenge: From Tweet to Piece? Day 2

During today's 30/30 started with some quick blathering about the writing process. Ended up figuring out a plan for the Rick Barnes "Tweet to Article" experiment.

Here's the text from that:

So, I'll look at yesterday's 30 minute writing and see what raw material is there.  My deadline will be Thursday. If I don't have it fleshed to an article draft by Thursday, I relegate it to a blog post. Yesterday worked with music on ipod, just listening through catalog, not sure if it will work today. Word count of topic material spewed yesterday is 274, just out of curiosity.

Stuck when trying to write. How to untangle my thoughts? What questions do I ask?  What's my point?

Started a semi-outline. A decent analogy emerged. (2 minutes left on timer now. Need to post.)

Good progress. Kept writing. Even did a bit of research without being sidetracked. (FireRickBarnes.com is parked, not active. Glad about that. Also glad the Horns beat OU last night.)

Writer's Challenge: From Tweet to Piece?

On sports talk radio this morning I heard a comment about basketball that applied to marriage. Did a quick tweet about it via @64mascots. Went to YMCA for 30/30 time (30 minutes cardio/30 minutes writing). Spent 17 minutes seeing if I could flesh out the idea into a coherent analogy. Simply typed ideas, some complete sentences, some not. The point was to get ideas down.

When I got to a digestion point, a point of needing to think more on the subject, I let it rest. Switched focus to producing a blog post in 13 minutes.

With about 7 minutes left it was time to post. Did a quick cut n paste from Google Docs to Typepad. Editing post just a bit.

30 seconds left. (What? iPhone died..no music, no timer..big distraction..ok, just finish the post.

Tomorrow's 30/30 will be spent on the same project.

Have you ever used a tweet for a springboard for a longer piece?

TypeTwitFaceMashUp

Learning to utilize other social media platforms with my blog means figuring out how to connect the dots from one service to another, with minimal duplication of work.  Tyepad, Twitter and Facebook are all social media, but they serve different purposes, just as various types of print media do.

So, how do I make them work together?

Here's my "map" for now:

(Read to the tune of "The hip bone's connected to the leg bone, the leg bone's connected to the ankle bone...)

A new post in Typepad shows up on Facebook and on Twitter with a shortened url link. Configure it through the Share Button on the Settings Tab in Typepad.

A new Tweet shows up as a Facebook status update. Instructions are here.

A new FB update is just on FB. 

Here's the guy version:

Typepad to FB and Twitter.    

Twitter to FB.

FB to FB. 

Each platform can reach different audiences. Using all the services together can broaden your reach.

Now, go get your BlogTwitFace on.

Update: It seems if the tweet has already gone to FB, deleting it from Twitter will not erase it from FB. Not that I want it to, I'm just sayin'.