One week and about ten hours ago, I decided to step away from Twitter for a little bit. The specific details aren’t important, and I suspect that many of you reading this now are already nodding in agreement because you grok why. But I took it off my phone, and I haven’t been to the website on my desktop since. For the first 48 hours, I spent a lot of time wondering if I was making a choice that mattered, and thinking about how I wasn’t habitually looking at Twitter every few minutes to see if I’d missed anything funny, or to see the latest bullshit spewing forth from President Fuckface’s mouthanus. I was, ironically, spending more time thinking about Twitter since I wasn’t using it than I spent thinking about it when I was.
It started out as a 24 hour break, then it was a 48 hour break, then it was the weekend, and here we are one week later and I don’t feel like I’m missing anything important. I feel like I’ve given myself more time to be quiet and alone, more time to reflect on things, and I’ve created space in my life to let my mind wander and get creative.
I’m not creating as much as I want to, and I’m starting to feel like maybe I’ll never be able to create as much as I want to, but I’ve gotten some stuff done this week that probably wouldn’t have gotten done if Twitter had been filling up the space that I needed.
Here’s a little bit from my blog post that became a short story that grew into a novella that is now a novel, All We Ever Wanted Was Everything:
My mother was leaning against her car, talking with one of the other moms, when we arrived. My sister was throwing a Strawberry Shortcake doll into the air and catching it while they watched. I walked out of the bus and across the blazing hot blacktop to meet her.
“Willow, catch!” My sister cried, sending Strawberry Shortcake in a low arc toward me. I caught her without enthusiasm and handed her back. “You’re supposed to throw her to me!” Amanda said, demonstrating. Her doll floated in a lazy circle, arms and legs pinwheeling, before falling back down into my sister’s waiting arms. The writer in me wants to make a clever reference to how I was feeling at that moment, about how I could relate to Strawberry Fucking Shortcake, spinning out of control in the air above us, but it feels hacky, so I’ll just talk about how I wanted to make the reference without actually making the reference, thereby giving myself permission to do a hacky writer’s trick without actually doing it. See, there’s nothing tricky about writing, it’s just a little trick!
It’s still in the first draft, and I may not keep all or even any of it, but after putting it aside for months while I was depressed about too many things to look at it, it feels so good to be back into this story.
Oh, speaking of writing, I got notes back from the editors on my Star Wars 40th anthology submission. I thought that, for sure, they’d want me to rework a ton of it, but all they asked me to do is change a name! And they told me it was beautiful! So I’ve been feeling like a Capital-W Writer for a few days.
And speaking of feeling happy for a change, Hasbro and Machinima announced that I’m a voice in the next installment of the Transformers animated series, Titans Return. And it feels silly to care about this particular thing, but Daily Variety put my name in the headline, which made me feel really, really good.I’ve always felt like the only thing that should matter is the work, and that the work should be able to stand on its own … but that’s not the reality even a little bit. Daily Variety is the industry’s paper of record, so when it chooses to put you in the headline of a story, people pay attention and it matters in the way that can make the difference between getting called for a meeting, or the last ten years of my life as an actor.
It’s also a good reminder that, even if I’m not getting the opportunities I want to be an on-camera actor, it is entirely within my power to create the space I need to be a writer.
I did the same with FB just about a year ago, and it’s been delightful. Wrote one novel & am working on a second. It’s completely recalibrated my mental/creative life.
That’s awesome about the Star Wars story! Really awesome! And congrats on the Transformers gig!
Talking about making space to be creative brought to mind Austin Kleon’s post about the “bliss station”: https://austinkleon.com/2016/07/21/the-bliss-station/ (If you haven’t read his Steal Like an Artist and Share Your Work, I highly recommend them. And his weekly email newsletter is fantastic.)
Deleted all my social media accounts (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc.) in July 2016 and haven’t missed it once. I have more time to read stuff that matters, exercise, do fun things with my family, and do projects (like building an old school arcade machine ; an Arduino project is next on my list). It’s also fun to surprise your friends by actually calling them (on the phone that’s right!) on their birthday. Keep it up, you won’t regret it!
I have been tempted to go on Twitter, but never joined. I have no filter. I am constantly editing my YouTube, FB and Instagram posts. Tweeting, especially without editing capabilities would not work well with my sense of humor. Glad to hear about Transformers job. Star Wars, even considering certain problematic sequels, is an association that is beyond exciting.
Hey Wil – I don’t know you and we’ll probably never meet (but if we do, I promise not to eat your skin), but I felt this weird pride when I saw that headline. I was all “fuck yeah Wil Wheaton!”. I like to see your name in the phony Hollywood bullshit, because that’s how people think to hire you. And I love your work. So Fuck Yeah Wil Wheaton!!
It cracks me up so much that eating my skin is currently a thing.
I also promise to not eat your skin. Because I don’t like octopus.
Ha ha! I feel proud too. I always thought it was a “mom thing” but maybe it’s something else. LOL!
Hi Wil! Congrats on your creative productivity, I can definitely relate. It’s been easy to avoid Twitter since November as I don’t have the stomach for current events (and I have the privilege of being able to ignore them). I can appreciate the validation that must come with the Variety headline, and also the desire to wish it didn’t matter. I give you a lot of credit for admitting that, and for basking in the glow just the same.
BTW You came up in conversation today amongst my writer friends, I was looking for audiobook recs and someone recommended your reading of Ready Player One, which I promptly downloaded. Can’t wait to give it a listen!
Validation! We creatives take it in all the many forms it comes–well done you for both the writing and acting validations!
Mostly, I wanted to comment that I’m not sure I’ll ever have enough creative time as a writer either. From conversations I’ve had with others, I’m starting to think that “not enough time to be creative” is part of being creative. No matter how much we make, we want more.
As much as I miss your presence on Twitter, but I absolutely appreciate your reasoning. It’s hard to create when you’re not letting yourself use more than 140 characters (says the woman with 2 unfinished short stories glaring at her while she meanders aimlessly through 3 social media sites).
Awesome stuff. I went on vacation, and took the Twitter (Fenix) widget off my phone to reduce battery use and remove the distraction. After 2 weeks, I missed it a little, so it is back on, but I reduced the refresh from every 30 minutes to every 4 hours and I am not trying to make sure I read every tweet in my feed.
Coincidence…you just did something that I just did in one of the chapters of my in-progress book. (14pt Verdana) Thanks, again, for that tip, Wil.
When i ‘go there’ like you did, usually it’s in person in a moment of Schadenfreude so delicious the person next to me tastes it; “I’m not going to say ‘I told you so’, so I’ll just stand here smugly as if i did.”
Delicious, delicious Schadenfreude.
Mouthanus.. snort
Dude, you are a Writer. I was going to clean out my bookcase and reread some old favorite books and then I was thinking about re-watching Toy Soldiers because I enjoyed it as a kid and haven’t seen it in a long time. I may or may not have worn a single earring that entire summer. (Shut up)
But then, I am most familiar with Wil Wheaton the writer/the adult who enjoys fart jokes, so watching that is literally a Wil from another century. Weird.
We at Becker abode are super stoked about your new transformers gig. I told husband about it and had to repeat the names for him twice
He said, “hey! I thought we were acquaintances! We talked about that! He was holding out on me!” 🙂
Last,I cannot stop playing this game on my phone. It’s called “Love you to bits” and it’s a delightful puzzle story game and is just adorable. Highly recommend.
I was going to say make a twitter account called noitsbecky and follow who you want so it can be less stress being anonymous, but sometimes a break is best.
Can not wait to read the Star Wars story!
Perceptor! Holy moly! You’re the second incarnation of my favorite Transformer ever (no pressure). Didja use a British accent?
I didn’t. I made a choice that I won’t specify, because I want to let the audience discover it on their own.
From one writer to another, I’m happy for you.:)
Wow! The snapshot of writing from All We Ever Wanted Was Everything is quite psychedelic.
Is that … good?
Of course! I really felt the layered voices of character, author, and content, variously in the foreground and background, like each kept finding it’s space in the mix (I tend to think of composition in terms of music editing and mixing.) It was hard, to differentiate or know if the characters thoughts are actually your thoughts on the subject of writing, and it is in those moments the experience of reading the fragment became so fluid and intertwine. What is real? Me: writing this on the metro rail, heading home from a show at Rhizome DC.
I like Erica’s answer way better, but here’s my rule: If I cannot tell is something is good or not, it’s always good. It works for me; may it work for y’all too.
Very cool about the writing. I like your writing quite a bit. And I feel a but guilty about the book of yours I checked out of my local library last year that I didn’t have time to read and returned. Oops!
Congratulations on the mention, and on creating a space to focus on your writing. That is awesome. Blessings, Wil. Debbie
I was in some cathedral in Sofia, Bulgaria in 2008 (or 2009) taking photos and I thought: “I don’t like churches. Why am I here?” I realized I had chosen that place purely for the photogenic value of impressing my 75 or so Facebook “friends.” I asked myself: “Will taking these photos get me laid, paid, or amuse, inform, or entertain?” And I realized that even then, most people would merely glance (if that) at those photos along with the other carefully orchestrated impressive photos people had shot of jetskiing, eating some lavish meal, or whatever. No one cared, and I wanted to be someplace else. So, I deleted my Facebook account and have been off ever since.
As a Web nerd, I’m always early in and early out. I have dozens of Twitter handles I’ve noodled with over the years, but never take them seriously and they just linger in limbo.
Lately, I’ve been doing WeChat here in China. It’s like 2008 all over again. Many local people have asked me to post, but I don’t know why. Eh.
In the end, Wil, your home is this blog. Your fortress of rectitude. You can pull up the drawbridge and we’ll man (or woman) the parapets to keep the surly Twitter scum at bay.
Ping.
China: worst Internet on the planet.
Not an exaggeration. It’s like 1997 over here.
I might as well tape my comment to a pigeon.
Or I should say… Xi Jin-PING.
Because that guy is all up in my bidness.
Xi Jinping vs. Spudnuts.
FIGHT!
China, I just want to make a little funny on the Wil Wheaton web log. And drink coffee.
No regimes will be toppled in the making of this ha-ha.
Don’t be so quick to condemn social media!
I just became an SF writer this year, after zero creative writing in the 45 years since high school. I stole the world context (ST:TNG) because I’m clueless about world-building. I have no fleshed-out characters other than the narrator because I’m clueless about how to create and breathe life into multiple characters.
Yet, somehow, it worked. The folks who read it enjoyed it, and even after repeated asks for critique and feedback, I’ve received nothing but encouragement. And, I suppose, silence from everyone else (I may have damaged some of them).
Actually, I’ve written 2 books, a “novelette” (long short story) and a novel. Both consist of entries from the narrator’s Personal Log. Aside from the main plot, I also place him in situations that rip at the seams of ST:TNG gaps, liberally applying my own Inconsistency Bondo™.
Both books literally wrote themselves: I was merely the amanuensis for the main character.
But here’s the best part: I did both books as an unscripted and largely unplanned series of Social Media posts on GNU Social, using the awesome Mastodon client software, as user Redshirt27 on TenForward.social.
They suck as works of literature. But, with enough belief suspension, and willfully ignoring my occasional use of a crowbar to get myself out of dead-ends, they hang together well enough to make OK stories.
More details here: https://bobtechnits.blogspot.com/2017/05/so-i-wrote-thing.html
I’m already agonizing over attending the Clarion Workshop in 2018 (the 2017 workshop is going on now, about 8 miles from me). Totally premature, but I’m not sure if I will be grabbing the bull by the horns, or becoming the bull in the china shop. Either way, it’s sure to contain lots of bull (me).
But, bottom line, social media has uses far beyond what THEY want/expect you to use it for!
So great. Star Wars and Transformers. I enjoy them both. Wonderful to see your name in a Variety headline. I have enjoyed your work and I am grateful to have met. Don’t kid yourself. While its rewarding to create something that “experts” say will become a classic, we need recognition like news headlines.
At first I was “no, come back, Twitter is fun and you were part of that for me!”, but then my Second Thoughts kicked in, telling myself that for you it probably wasn’t as much, and my initial response was basically an addict not wanting to see someone sober up. I’m a muggle just taking a nibble here and there but you had to deal with the Stupidsphere hounding you daily. Then my Third Thoughts chimed in, saying that I too had been using Twitter to get bitesized nibbles of entertainment like a can of Pringles instead of going for a full meal and reading a satisfying book for instance.
Twitter can be addictive, because it is a source of what Johnny 5 would call Major Input and there’s always more. But I think I’ll follow your lead for a bit, and allocate the hours spent from microdiscussions and news on Twitter to novels and time spent outside walking.
I’m looking forward to Operation Blue Milk even more now. My Edge of the Empire campaign has its base of operations on Tatooine so I intend to use some of the stories as plot hooks.
All the best in your endeavours to stay away from the nasty online world. If it helps you, more power to you!
I think my phone dying is the best thing that ever happened to break me off apps. Next comes the brain chip… lol.
You don’t miss Twitter and Twitter doesn’t miss you. All of that “phone drama” will go on without you.
Congrats on the anthology”s (lack of) editorial notes! fist bump 🙂
Social media really does suck you in to like a vortex if you aren’t careful! I rely on it for my work so can’t totally quit. Im an artist (like painting art) and like an actor, who you know, who talks about you is everything. There is something intrinsically wrong with the fact that instead of being judged on our work we have to go out and “connect” with the right kind of people. I was actually told when I first started out to go and follow celebrities on social media, comment and try and get them to follow me. I hated it. Its so fake! It kind of worked out in the end though because through people like yourself I have laughed, cried and felt a kind of comradery. In a way we are all in the same boat. Now I just follow people I am genuinely interested in hearing what they have to say and for what its worth I admire your skill as an actor. I wish you were in more things! I look forward to reading your work. I’m also trying to write my own book, its not easy! My hat off to you.
I just re-joined FB recently. I have grandkids in far off places who I almost never get to see so it lets me keep up with them. But I set up an email just for that and keep it separate. It can be addictive so knowing my family history of addiction, I keep my time there as short and infrequent as possible. Never been on the twitter or instagram.
Making space to be creative.
It’s going to be hard, but I’m going to try to wean myself off both Twitter and Fb. It’s going to be hard because most, if not all, the people I’ve connected with on Twitter, are writery folks – while Fb is where I meet up with a writery group and my family. Hmm. Perhaps I’ll do as one of the commenters does: limit my time on these social network sites to one short visit per day.
If it’s not an annoyance, Wil, I might let you know how I get on. Nah, you’re right. Looking for approval and support in all the wrong places.
All the best.
Will,
This was very timely for me. I have been having this very conversation with myself. I have been retired since January, and in that whole time I have not written just for me. I have picked up a few freelance jobs, but that’s not the same. I haven’t even thought about things to write, which is part of my writing process. I am going to unplug for awhile too – take the social media apps off of my phone – quit worrying about other people’s opinions about everything. There are more important things to think about, write about, and do. Thanks for the nudge.
I find it beneficial to step back and recalibrate the social media vs life balance a couple times a year. There’s an initial withdrawal period of 3 to 4 days when I step away, racing thoughts and introspective stupors spinning in my brain like neurotic dance partners. But after that, the stories and music start surging back into my skull like long lost friends. The creative spirit reinvigorated, I invariably return to the fray. As HST’s answering machine once eloquently put it: “As a dog obediently returns to its vomit, so a fool to his messages.”
You are an inspiration, Wil. I LOVE reading your works!!! I’ve (of course) been a fan from the beginning. You are a great person, writer, and more!
Wil, I love reading your stories. I am trying to be a writer and feel like such an impostor sometimes. I relate to your stories and am happy to know that I am not the only one out there struggling with my own mind to let me do what I really want to do. You are an inspiration. Thank you for being you and keep up the great work.
My friend & writer colleague Sheree L Greer & I discussed how much of our creativity do we waste being witty on social media. I have used some of my posts as a springboard into a larger piece, but most of what I post is an edited thought/reply/comment that I’ve given a slice out of my creative pie. Most of it I don’t get back. I take extended breaks, but have settled into a twice a week check in on facebook & twitter, and have abandoned tumbler altogether. If something important/meaninful/worthy happens in the world I might check in. Chester Bennington’s death was the most recent. I spent several hours popping between fb and twitter, reading, commenting and posting. I did some knocking people off their high horse, some mourning, some gratitude, posted a couple pieces from my poetry website. Was it productive? Eh, maybe. It was a release. But for the most part social media is a drain on that part of me that gathers words around an idea and forms them into a cohesive poem/story/rant. I find the overall tone of hysterical outrage overstimulating, which is really really bad for my mental health. I channel my crazy into being creative and at the end have something for it, or I channel it into social media, and have nothing in the end but depression, anxiety, fear, and clonazapam,
Congrats on the story and the voice work, Wil. does happy dance for you
As for leaving Twitter, I get it. I take breaks myself and I don’t really read my feed. Just mentions and the like. But sometimes, even that is too much, as you see the top things when you open it and…yeah. You understand.
You do you, Wil. It’s all good. 🙂
Hi Wil. Congrats on the writing. After hearing that you were involved with the Newtek video toaster, and being a TNG fan, I would love to talk to you on our little podcast about those times and what you’re doing now. [email protected] Please consider it, we are an easy going bunch 🙂
L’importante è che tu stia bene. Però su Twitter mi manchi. 😙
Hey Wil-
I won’t lie, I miss you and your voice in my twitter feed- but I’m just a stranger on the internet. Glad to hear things seem to be going well for you at the moment! I know its tough but keep up the great work, because, well, it’s all pretty great. and enjoyable.
sometimes i wish i could be more open on here than i allow myself to be…
you do great things — and as always thank you —
I love the name of the book. I just monetized my blog and am going to sign up with a few more ad networks, so I can write my book, online where anyone who can afford a 10 dollar smart phone with wifi can read it, and I get payed of course. Maybe I’ll be off the streets sooner than I know.
Of course you’re a Writer with captial W. Looking forward to the finished product. My Mom and i watched original Trek together and my kids (all adults now) fans too. i once did a sociology paper on how real life and shows like Star Trek interact/intersect influencing each other. (Titled it ‘Real to Reel to Real’)
The break from social media is important. Also finding outlets that stimulate rather than drain you. There’s one called ‘Ello’ that is chock full of creative people of all kinds (prose writers, poets, photographers and painters, even someone who makes gorgeous large mosaics out of tile pieces. i go there because except for the occasional troll that you get anywhere online (they seem to fade away fairly quick, i think because most of us will try reasoning 1 time only and then just ignore bad behavior), it’s a friendly and supportive community. (If you go, i am ‘estherfey’ there.)
Being a Wil Wheaton stalker that I must say that I am very happy to see that you are finding space to be creative, especially from the stream of negativity that you (and Anne) seem to have thrust on you by social media. Hopefully you are finding time to be you as well and then you you can start believing in yourself as well all believe in you.
I would hug you…but the beard just puts me off.
Keep up the good work and keep being you!
Your Awesome!
“Oh, speaking of writing, I got notes back from the editors on my Star Wars 40th anthology submission. I thought that, for sure, they’d want me to rework a ton of it, but all they asked me to do is change a name! And they told me it was beautiful! So I’ve been feeling like a Capital-W Writer for a few days.”
This probably is not a surprise but I didn’t know you were writing something for Star Wars, let alone knowing that there was an anthology being put together!
I’ll have to keep it on my radar, I always enjoy the short story collections.
I think it would do alot of us some good to make use of the precious time we have. I’ve apired to write over the years but I’m not as articulate as I’d like to be which is why I think that I greatly admire writers. That is all. Loved your 2nd book btw.
I will be excited to hear your voice in Transformers Titans Return! I’m a big fan of Transformers.. Just haven’t had time to see it yet… or has it come out. Haha.. barely know what day it is!