Twitter Diet: Counting Characters not Calories

                I began this journey because I wanted to learn more about social media. I have dabbled a little – to no avail. I basically have a non-descript Facebook page, a dormant Twitter Account and a Pinterest login. I know enough to sound knowledgeable in cocktail-party speak, but I’m not comfortable enough to compete with the natives. I want to compete.

                Twitter is the most foreign to me. I love to talk and am way too wordy.  After spending years in school being told to write 5,000 or 10,000 or most recently 20,000 words on a topic – I need to go on a word diet. I have basically spent graduate school learning how to stretch things out and cover every possible angle. Now, I need to learn just the opposite.  

                I used to tutor 5^th-8^th grade Language Arts students. At least once a week, for bell work, I would give them a prompt  and ask them to create a 5-word story, Hemingway style. They loved and hated this exercise. However, I bet if they have a Twitter account today – they really appreciate this skill.

                So, today, I am going on the Twitter Diet. I am going to contribute at least one Tweet a day and wordsmith it down to 140 characters. As a lifetime Weight Watcher’s member, I am great at counting points (calories).  Now, I am going to be great at counting characters.