Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Facebook... writing exercise?

Lately, Liz thinks about herself in third person -- and she blames Facebook for always asking: 'what are you doing right now?' And then demanding she answers using her name, rather than "I."

Liz admits this tendency has grown quite annoying. She doesn't like to think of herself as someone separate, someone other than, well, who she is.

Then again, thinking about herself in third person allows her to see herself from a different angle, especially now that Liz doesn't always have to be "Liz is..." according to Facebook. She can think of herself in relation to any verb!

Liz thinks...
Liz hates when...
Liz just ate...

Liz loves...
Liz survives Mondays by...
(Or even) Liz:

And then what Liz shares about herself to the Facebook world, well, that says a lot about her too.

How, you ask, can this be a "Facebook writing exercise"?

Even if your latest short story is written in first-person, try writing about your latest short-story character in third person, in a string of one-sentences that each describe an aspect of the character, including what they think, feel, hate, love, care about, miss, wish, etc. Also consider what they would admit on the world wide web -- and what they'd be less inclined to share.

Liz thanks Facebook for this writing exercise.
Liz also realizes that she's become way too addicted to the social networking site.

2 comments:

graceandglory77 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
graceandglory77 said...

Heather agrees with Liz's perspective! She thinks that on one hand, it is interesting and helpful to be so connected to the thoughts of the rest of the world, but on the other, staying "in the know" can be very addicting!

Heather San Filippo