Social media provides writers with the opportunity to connect with writers from across the world.
But is the type of community social media provides really what writers need to find success, or are platforms like Facebook and Twitter doing more harm than good when it comes to writers achieving their literary goals?
I discuss the dangers of social media for writers in this week’s episode of The Writing Coach podcast.
Listen to the episode or read the transcript below:
The Writing Coach Episode #142 Show Notes
Get Kevin’s FREE book: NOVEL ADVICE: MOTIVATION, INSPIRATION, AND CREATIVE WRITING TIPS FOR ASPIRING AUTHORS.
The Writing Coach Episode #142 Transcript
Hello, beloved listeners and welcome back to The Writing Coach podcast. It is your host, as always, writing coach Kevin T Johns here.
I don’t know about you, but my backyard is completely filled with red leaves right now. The trees are shedding and it is gorgeous out there when it’s not horribly gray and raining. Are you getting ready for Halloween? Who you gonna be this year? Drop me a line, let me know who you or your kids are going out as.
Speaking of dropping me a line, I had one of our listeners send me a message and I wanted to respond to it on the podcast today. Here’s what she wrote:
I was thinking of your podcast. You know what I’d like to hear? And I imagine you’ve talked about this a ton or covered it in other classes, maybe on a podcast too, but diving too deep into social media where you let others’ thoughts and beliefs deter your writing. Social media can be a wonderful tool, but can also break you as well if you let it. I think I’m learning that the hard way.
Yeah, social media, it is really a double-edged knife that we’re dealing with here, and that blade can be pretty sharp sometimes. Here’s the dilemma, nobody does anything alone. Writers need community. Humans need community. We are pack animals. We do better, in families, in groups, in tribes, in communities. And so, as a writer, I really do recommend that you seek out other writers or coaches or courses that you could take so that you can interact with other people and how you can learn from them and support you. And obviously, social media has opened up so many venues for getting into contact with other writers, with other people, with joining online communities and tribes. I was pretty excited about social media when I first started using it.
When I first started hearing about people going on Facebook or Twitter, you know, a decade ago, it, it didn’t particularly interest me, but when my first book came out, and I was learning about marketing and I got really excited about online marketing and about social media, but I think like so many people out there, like the person who wrote in is probably feeling at some point. We’ve all noticed that social media is probably not making our lives better in the way we thought it would or the way we hoped it would. And so that’s what I want to talk a bit about today. I’m certainly on social media to some extent. I’m running my story plan program right now, and we do have a private Facebook group for that program. So I, I don’t want to present myself as being free from social media or thinking it’s the worst thing in the world.
But what I will say is that as a writer, a lot of the time, the community you need and maybe looking for, you’re probably not going to find on social media. And let’s talk a little bit about why I think that is one of the biggest problems I see when people join something like a writer’s Facebook group is the writers in the group don’t know each other. We don’t know who these people are, what their particular situation is. When I am providing editorial feedback to one of my coaching clients, I think extremely carefully about who this person is, what their goals are, where they are in their journey, and then I cater my specific editorial advice in a way that I think is going to be the most valuable for them in that situation. In a Facebook group, people don’t know anything about you and you don’t know anything about them.
And so the advice that you get can be totally inappropriate, not applicable to your situation, or it just might get you down rather than inspire you to revise or improve your writing. The other problem with something like a big Facebook group with hundreds of people in it, and no one knows each other, is no one is really invested in each other’s success. They don’t care whether you succeed or fail, and their advice or opinions they share might not only be in the name of not supporting you, they might actually be wanting to tear you down. People who are insecure and who are able to achieve the things they want to achieve in their own writing often look for opportunities to pull other people down so that other people can feel it as bad as they do. Another problem I see is that, and, and I, this, I don’t even necessarily attribute this just to social media or online Facebook groups, I even attribute this to writing critique groups in general is often you shouldn’t be trusting the advice that these people are giving you.
They aren’t experts. They might be just as lost as you are. And I, I remember I was looking at a Reddit thread once and someone asked a question about obligatory scenes. Obligatory scenes is a term that Sean Coin uses in the story grid. I think he’s pulling it from Robert McKee. Anyway, it’s a common term in writers’ craft education and writing. But in this Reddit thread, someone said, Does anyone know what the obligatory scenes of this genre is? And there was all these repo responses of people saying, There’s no such thing as obligatory scenes. You don’t have to do anything. Your book can be anything you want it to be. Who’s this Sean Coin guy telling you your book has to have certain scenes? And it was just a bunch of no nothing, yahoos all piling on one another and, and, and like echoing one another, this nonsense idea that genres don’t have obligatory scenes.
And it was just this endless rabbit hole of bad advice. And that was just one example that I happened to stumble across with. These types of things are happening every day in Facebook groups, on Twitter, all across the internet. People without the background or the education to be sharing advice are doing so and giving you editorial feedback on your work that might be not only like off the mark, but actually wrong. Let’s move on from Facebook to Twitter. I, I think, you know, a lot of the things that are wrong with Facebook get even worse on Twitter because unlike Facebook where most people are using their rare real names, anyone can hide behind an avatar on Twitter. And as the internet has demonstrated, people can act horrendously when they don’t have to take responsibility for their actions or comments because they are anonymous. And so going to something like Twitter for feedback, for community, for anything, who knows what you’re getting there?
Who knows who these people are? You know, who knows what percentage of Twitter is bots at this point? When you don’t know who someone is, you can’t be in a community with them. You can’t be in a community of anonymous faces, at least not if your goal is to create great literature, maybe if your goal is to form a hacker or collective and overthrow governments or something, then yeah, maybe you all act anonymously. But if you are an artist trying to create something and looking for some support along the way a platform that allows people to register anonymously and provide feedback anonymously is not what you’re looking for. In addition, we’ve all seen it happen. If you are going to go on Twitter, you need to face the digital lynch mob. If you say the wrong thing, if you do the wrong thing, if you don’t share the right opinions, the digital lynch mob is coming after you on Twitter.
And that is a scary thing. That’s a dangerous thing. We’ve heard about swatting, this is the new term, right? Where people send squat swat teams to other people’s homes and like just incredibly terrifying, scary stuff. And, again, this is what happens when people can function anonymously. So I, I mean, I deleted my Twitter account years ago, and I, you know, it would take a whole lot to get me back onto that platform. Let’s talk about Reddit. Now. There are a lot of writing communities on Reddit, and one of them that I was introduced to by a client of mine is a Reddit or subreddit where all they do is world build. So they world build as a hobby. So rather than actually writing a fantasy book, they just create a fantasy world as their writing. And what is going on here is people are doing the work about the, the work rather than the work itself.
They’re talking about being writers instead of being writers. So this is not just on red at all across these social platforms. We have people sharing memes about, Oh, I should be writing what I’m not, or, but I’m not, you know, maybe instead of sharing memes about not writing, you could just be writing. Social media tends to lend itself to procrastination.
And let’s talk about some of the larger social media problems going from there. And I would say the algorithm problem, this is a problem not just for writers. This is a problem that is genuinely impacting the world that we live in. So how online algorithms work on Facebook, on Twitter, on Reddit, on all of these things is it awards interactions. If you have a YouTube video that gets two likes and no comments, and you get have YouTube video that gets 50 comments and all of them are disagreeing with you in saying how wrong your video is, guess which one the algorithm promotes, the one with the 50 comments, the algorithm supports interactions, and the thing that stimulates interactions most easily is outrage, controversies, fights, arguments.
People are going back and forth, arguing, calling each other names. All the algorithm sees is interaction. Great. Let’s promote this to more people. You’ve got people who live as trolls. They’re in there just to upset people. Then you have other people who think they’re avenging, you know, goodness by fighting the trolls. Again, Facebook, YouTube, they don’t care what the conversation is, they just care that the conversation is taking place. So again and again, what you see promoted on your social media feeds are the controversies and are the things that get people worked up and get people fighting. And so how often in the last few years have you heard people say, Wow, the world is just coming, becoming more and more divisive. America is just split and divided Canada following that trend? Well, why is, why does it feel like the world is so divided?
It’s because social media has created a world that promotes division, that promotes arguments. And so what happens is you digest one of these pieces of content, or worse yet, you get pulled into one of these arguments and what happens, the algorithm keeps feeding you more and more of that same content. I made the mistake, I, I, you know, she Hulk didn’t look like it was gonna be for me. And so I watched a review, rip it Apart, the first episode of She Huk. And since that time, my YouTube feed is nothing but videos ripping on She-Hulk, ripping on The Rings of Power, which I also didn’t like. I did my own podcast episode about the rings of power. But the point being, you just see more and more negativity, you see more and more divisiveness, and it starts to tint your worldview.
You start to see the world in black and white. You start to see the world as all negative. You start to see the world as you know, not well-rounded complex people, but as these simple avatars who we either consider good or evil. Now, I would say that writing, especially novel writing, the art of literature is about capturing the nuances of life. If you are starting to see the world in black and white, I don’t think that supports you as a writer. I’m taking a course right now by the great Allen Moore and what he says is that you need to be able to identify with every character in your book. You don’t have to agree with the character’s opinion, but you have to understand why they see the world the way they do. And spending all day on social media that presents the world as divided, that presents the world as black and white, right or wrong, with no level of nuance, no level of gray, no level of actual in-depth thinking or conversation.
Just surface-level name calling that is not going to support your writing. Here’s another problem with all of this stuff. It’s hugely distracting. If you take a look at a book like Cal Newport’s book, Deep Work, he makes a fantastic argument for avoiding distraction, for focusing on the things that are important in your life. Essentialism is another great book on that topic. And so as a writer being constantly distracted by pings, by alerts, by the algorithm, pushing more and more negativity your way is not helping you do the work that’s really important to you, which is your writing.
Now we’re back to the dilemma, though. We can’t do our writing alone. We need friends, we need supporters, we need coaches. And so what do we do? What’s the alternative to going on social media and looking for some community and support?
Well, the pandemic, let’s, let’s hope . . . oh my goodness, I hope the pandemic is winding down. At least here in Canada, things have been opened back up for a little while. Let’s hope the fall continues that way and let’s hope we’re able to go back in the real world because a wonderful way to develop a community of genuine supporters and friends is actually going out into the real world and meeting real people. Whether that’s going to book shows, whether that’s going to comic book conventions, whether that’s joining your local author’s association. When my books first came out, I went to a book show and became really good friends with an another author selling books at that show. She and I ended up starting a podcast together. We were then asked by the Canadian Authors Association to come give a talk at the local Ottawa component of that larger association. And all of those things had nothing to do with the internet.
You know, I went to a show, I met a real person, a real friend. We developed a genuine friendship and partnership because of the creative output from that partnership. A real person invited us to come to a local authors association and talk to real people. In fact, I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned this on the show, the very first thing you hear in the credits for the opening, the opening credits for this show is me at a talk saying the writer in its natural habitat. You know, I’ve finally found it, and that is actually a clip from the talk that my partner and I gave at the Canadian Authors Association. So all of that, that moment, that moment, if you’ve been a long-time listener of this show, you might’ve heard that, heard me saying that dozens of dozens of times. And I never would’ve said that without real life, without going out there and meeting real people.
That said, obviously, the internet provides some great alternatives to having to go out and meet people in the real world and risk one, getting sick or to risk, you know, the anxiety that comes with social interaction for a lot of people, I know a lot of writers are introverts, and I know me saying go out there and meet some other writers, Sounds easy, but is in fact really difficult for a lot of people. I get that there’s a safety to going online. There’s safety to being behind a computer screen. I completely get that. So if you are unable or don’t want to go out and meet people in real life, what’s the alternative to interacting with other writers on social media?
Well, I would say private communities. My coaching program, FIRST DRAFT, and my coaching program, FINAL DRAFT, haVE a private community component.
It’s not on social media, however. We have a SLACK room, so a private chat function totally separate from social media. And so the distractions that come along with Facebook and its algorithm are ignored. In our Slack group, it’s the people in the group, and all we’re talking about is writing. And these are real people. They’re not nameless, anonymous people hiding behind avatars. This is a group of writers who come together on live coaching calls, who talk to one another, who read each other’s work, who understand who someone is, where they’re coming from, what they’re going through in their life.
If you are extremely ill and you still manage to get a chapter written one week, and then you post it on some Facebook group to a bunch of people who know nothing about you, they’re gonna read it and somebody’s gonna go, “Oh, I didn’t really like that.” Or, “Oh, that wasn’t very good,” or, “Oh it was a fine piece.”
Whereas if you post it in a private group of people who actually know you and know that you’re sick and know that you fought through so many things to get that chapter written, do you think the feedback is going to be different than the people on a random Facebook group? Heck yeah, it is because they know you, they know what you’re going through. And also they’re all collectively learning about the craft together. And so when people are providing feedback, they’re providing in a way that takes into account who you are, what your history is, but they’re also able to use shared terminology so that we understand with the level of specificity what it is we want to say about each other’s work. And ultimately we care about each other. In a private group, like my Slack group for my group coaching, the people in that group care about one of another’s success.
They are pulling for one another. It’s not a random question. They’re answering in a random Reddit thread in hopes of getting some karma points. It’s nothing about that. It’s not about getting attention on social media, it’s not about getting likes or retweets or anything. It’s about human interaction. It’s about writers coming together and supporting one another in a way that’s beneficial. And so if you would like to learn more about my first draft and final draft group coaching programs, I am going to be opening up the doors to those programs in just a couple weeks. We haven’t had a cohort in a while. It is that time. So keep an eye out. If you’re on my mailing list, you’ll be seeing notifications before long where you could join a my group coaching, get into these conversations in a private, safe, supportive, online environment as opposed to having the Twitter mob come after you for wrong think or having some random person on a Facebook group dis your writing because they were having a bad day.
I don’t think that’s the world that’s gonna get you to where you want to go with writing. Come join me and my team of writers in my group of people who are pulling for one another and who all want to support each other for success.
If you’re not on my mailing list yet, head on over to www.kevintjohns.com. I give away a free book there. There’s a tab at the top that says free book. Click on that, drop your email address into the form, and I will send you a free copy of my book, Novel Advice: Motivation, Inspiration, and Creative Writing Tips for Aspiring Authors.
That is it for this week. Thank you so much for tuning in. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast so that I can see you on the next episode of The Writing Coach.
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