Is Your Writing Better Than Facebook?

Posted on Jul 19th, 2012 | 84 comments home title

Guest blogger: Ed Cyzewski (@edcyzewski)

As writers, we all have a fierce, powerful, all-consuming competitor. You won’t find it at a book store, and it’s one of the few things you can’t find on Amazon. I’m talking about Facebook.

If you use Facebook, think about what you love about it for a moment.

Facebook provides:
→ Entertainment
→ Interaction with friends
→ Immediate gratification

Facebook is your competition because it consumes a ton of leisure time. I’m not saying that we need to fight Facebook toe to toe. I don’t think the world is pining for a book written like a Facebook timeline (though, you never know). Our challenge as writers is to drag our readers away from irresistible distractions like Facebook long enough to teach, enchant, or motivate them with carefully crafted words.

Facebook offers info-graphics about political controversies, YouTube videos of kittens and rabbits wrestling, and unmatched drama from that friend who can’t use a toaster properly. What are you offering?

This is not a call to find more controversial info-graphics or videos of cuter rabbits—though I won’t complain about the latter. I’m merely stating an old adage about my writing and your writing in a new way: no one cares, especially with Facebook as a source of entertainment.

How do we make readers care about our ponderous phrases, picky poems, and pushy prose?

We tell the truth.

Facebook thrives on distracting pets, entertainment, meal minutiae, and controversy. Sure, we may find the truth here and there when someone shares a profound blog post or video. Heck, you may have even found this post through Facebook. However, the only way a writer like me can compete with Facebook is by telling the truth with more boldness and honesty than I thought possible yesterday and with greater depth than a status update.

At the Festival of Faith and Writing, actress and author Susan Isaacs led a nonfiction workshop where she encouraged us to think about what stands out about our favorite books. I immediately thought of Anne Lamott’s Traveling Mercies.

In one scene, Lamott is just trying to have a quiet moment during Ash Wednesday, but her son kept turning the television on. As the whiny voices of Alvin and the Chipmunks chirped the song Achy Breaky Heart, Lamott’s anger boiled over and she angrily scolded her son, yanking him away from the television and the Chipmunk’s cover song. She later had to coax him out of a tree where he tried to hide from the “meanest person on earth next to Darth Vader.”

The raw honesty of that scene has stuck with me throughout the years because it made me realize two things:
1. Anne Lamott sounds a lot crazier in her books than she does in person.
2. I’m every bit as crazy as the Anne Lamott in her books.

Lamott took one of her lowest moments as a parent and used it to touch my own brokenness and humanity. As she pried open her life in page after page, she didn’t teach me about herself. She gave each reader perspective, knowledge about brokenness, and hope.

Facebook is not the place to write about an emotional outburst like that. It just doesn’t work. Who knows what would happen in the comments, and really, I think a lot of us would just “Vaguebook” something about chipmunks ruining a perfectly good morning. Facebook doesn’t give us the space we need to process, to confront the truth, and to poke around at a particular situation long enough to learn something of value.

Immediacy is great for entertainment but not for meaningful life reflection and fearless confrontations with truth.

Writers have everything they need to overcome the distracting powers of Facebook because we are ultimately purveyors of the truth, even if fiction writers have to make up a story to find it. Make no mistake: dealing in the hard currency of truth has a steep cost.

It will hurt.

I once had to hide in a café bathroom, a weepy mess after writing a piece. As I tapped the final words, they reached into me and tore out my heart. It was one of the most truthful things I’d ever written, and the unflinching honesty broke me.

I gave readers of that article the truth, and they responded with words of gratitude. For at least one day I beat Facebook in a tiny corner of the internet because I told the truth. Readers told their friends, “Stop what you’re doing and read this.”

It’s tough to compete with Jon Stewart or cute kittens on Facebook—if someone ever combined the two, the internet would probably explode. This is a challenge I gladly accept—competing with Facebook, not combining Jon Stewart and kittens. I count myself among those who believe God can use us to make this world a little better with our words.

More often than not, Facebook is designed to hide the truth, to create alter egos, to project our ideal selves, or to prevent meaningful self-reflection. Writers are among the few who have the power to serve up the nourishing power of the truth in a world starving to death on entertainment and distraction. This is our calling if we’re willing to pay the price.

In your writing, do you ever think about the fact that you’re competing with Facebook and many other entertainment options? What do you think of the idea of “telling the truth” as a compelling alternative to Facebook?

***

Ed Cyzewski is the co-author of Hazardous: Committing to the Cost of Following Jesus and is the author of Coffeehouse Theology, as well as the self-published works A Path to Publishing and Divided We Unite. His blog about imperfectly following Jesus is www.inamirrordimly.com, and his writing blog is www.edcyz.com.

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http://www.deenasafari.com DC Spell

Wow, bravo, sir! This is truly profound. It hit a spot in my heart I’ve been struggling to ignore for the past year and a half. I know my most honest posts have always received the most comments and shares, but it’s a hard thing to commit to truth when people want it pretty too – or cute as kittens! Great, great post!
- http://www.inamirrordimly.com ed cyzewski
  
  It’s true that people want pretty and cute, but I think that when we tell the truth, many are so refreshed by it even if they didn’t know they needed it.
http://blessed-are-the-pure-of-heart.blogspot.com Andrew Budek-Schmeisser

What a powerful piece!

While presenting truth is an important way to compete with FB (and I agree that we are in competition!), another attraction we can present is the world we create in our writing. In a word…respite from the world’s cares.

We can offer a nourishing Sabbath meal for the Soul, and it can last a lot longer than any FB hors d’ouvres.

As an example, look at the SF writer, Arthur C. Clarke. His novels 9and novellas, and short stories) build worlds that the reader can visit and revisit in imagination, that are much more captivating than anything FB can offer.

Why? Because we have space and longevity on our side.

Space, because we’re not constrained by character counts.

Longevity, because on FB we SEE things disappear off the bottom of the screen – they become old news before our eyes. But our books, be they paper or Kindle, live on…and now, with e-Pub, never need go out of print in our lifetime.

I almost feel sorry for ol’ FB…
- http://pjcasselman.wordpress.com/ P. J. Casselman
  
  “We can offer a nourishing Sabbath meal for the Soul, and it can last a lot longer than any FB hors d’ouvres.”–Yes, give me the substance first and we’ll work out the form.
- http://www.inamirrordimly.com ed cyzewski
  
  Great point!
- http://kristinlaughtin.blogspot.com Kristin Laughtin
  
  Yes! Not only can we offer truth, but we can offer a deeper escape, respite, or vacation than is possible in a short FB message. (And let’s face it, nobody reads long things posted to FB. Some people only want snacks there instead of meals.) Once we ensnare people, we can keep them there by offering greater quantity and quality of the thing that attracted them in the first place.
http://pjcasselman.wordpress.com/ P. J. Casselman

“Entranced by string dangling from the garment held by a man in shiny clothes, the kitten followed until she heard thunder. As rain pelted her fur, she dashed under the closest cover and snuggled up to a post. A strange warm droplet landed upon her then another. Her huge eyes gazed up to see the source. It was a man hanging upside down on a cross.”
I’m not sure how to work John Stewart in there. Maybe he can play the soldier?

This was an excellent post, Ed. It reminds me of the church. Too often we see the other congregations as the competition, so we struggle to get the attention of those already in the fold. Church growth becomes a matter of putting the coins in one pocket into another. Nothing is gained.
We’re not in competition with other writers. The real opponent is other sources of entertainment and social media with their quick fix flash. Unless we grab the attention of the potential from these, we’ll gain nothing.
- http://www.inamirrordimly.com ed cyzewski
  
  The scarcity mindset among writers can really hold us all back.
- http://theotherstephenkingonwriting.blogspot.com Stephen H. King
  
  Excellent point, and one echoed in a recent blog post by…um, a famous Indie blogger who shall remain nameless here.
  
  His point, and yours, if I understand correctly, is that books are no longer a zero sum thing, if they ever really were. Sure, a hardback used to (and still does) cost enough that a customer on a budget might decide to buy one and not another, but with used books and mass market paperbacks and now cheap e-books, it’s not hard to fill up your reading time with as many books as you can read. That gives readers the ability to freely try out unknowns, and us unknowns the warm fuzzy that we’re not really competing with the Stephen Kings and the Spider Robinsons of the world. If anything, we all bring each other up.
  - http://pjcasselman.wordpress.com/ P. J. Casselman
    
    Stephen, I remember the early 1980′s when the music industry was in a major slump. Several large record labels filed for bankruptcy. A turn occurred when Michael from the Jackson Five released his album “Thriller.” Old and new fans flocked to the stores to buy it. While they were there, many bought at least one other album. One of my phrases is “Twilight sucks. Thank you, Twilight.”
    
    By the way, as a fellow sci-fi/fantasy aficionado, have you noticed how many woman have recently become enthralled with sci-fi/fantasy? My wife rolled her eyes at “Star Trek” and “Lord of the Rings,” but she’s enthralled with “Falling Skies” and “Grimm.”
    - http://theotherstephenkingonwriting.blogspot.com Stephen H. King
      
      I have, and I rejoice in it. It has to do, I believe, with how we’re writing our characters into our stories. Gone are the day when women characters should most accurately be named “Plot Device #12″ or “Captain Kirk’s Love Interest.” Star Trek: Voyager did a great job of breaking some of the old molds, and now it’s fairly normal to write video games, fiction, and screenplays where the gender of the character is irrelevant to the character’s abilities. My own growing fan base, in fact, is comprised in large part of women, in part because rather than writing a fantasy book about a god coming back to the earth, I wrote a fantasy-based love story about what happens to the guy’s wife when she finds out he’s a god coming back to the earth. She’s a strong character, and she ends up kicking serious tush.
      
      I remember one of the essays I read in Editors on Editing discussed the topic with an early-1990′s slant, and I found it very interesting. I’ll have to pull that book back off the shelf now and re-read it.
      
      -TOSK
http://bookgate.ru Valeriya

Thank you very much for your post!

Can I translate it into Russian? I know that it would inspire a lot of people in my country. Let me know if it is possible, please.
http://girlz4godrok.blogspot.com Emii

And how much does this world really enjoy Facebook, anyway? Like you said, it’s a distraction.

I love this post. I love this challenge — writing truths that cause people to come listen, come become a part of something good, leaving Facebook behind for a while.
http://nowthinkaboutit.com EnnisP

Ed makes a great point. “Self” truth is difficult to admit to and managing it personally isn’t any easier.

But, sharing it with others, especially the truth about our failures, makes us human and more appealing. More comfortable to be around.

Throwing God’s (ideological) truth at people only alienates and is probably a way to cover up the real me/us.
Julie

Thanks, Ed. Very encouraging.
http://4broadminds.blogspot.com/ carol brill

Ed,”Facebook thrives on distracting pets, entertainment, meal minutiae, and controversy” YES! As a writer I feel compelled to FB yet find it mostly an unsatisfying distraction for exactly the reasons you mention.
I never thought about FB as a competitor, but I am an avid reader and it competes for my time. Makes sense that it is limiting others time to read, too.
- http://www.inamirrordimly.com ed cyzewski
  
  Oh gosh, so true!
Julia Denton

Wow, this writing is CERTAINLY better than Facebook! Much food for thought here, at a time when I really needed just such a message. Thanks.
- http://www.inamirrordimly.com ed cyzewski
  
  Thanks! I certainly wondered if anyone would comment, “Facebook is way better than this…” Ha! Of course, there’s also the irony of me sharing this ON Facebook.
http://solitruth.com Diana Harkness

Good post. I don’t believe in immediate gratification. The immediate does not gratify. I cross post my blog to twitter and facebook because neither offers the space to speak in depth. However pictures speak a thousand words and some facebook pics communicate more than a facebook paragraph. An example would be two pictures my recently posted which portrayed the path to addiction for someone not rooted in Christ. That’s where facebook works best.
- http://www.inamirrordimly.com ed cyzewski
  
  Good point. Images on Facebook or Pinterest can be powerful story telling tools that can communicate truth beyond the latest meme.
Jackie Ley

Thanks for this,Ed. I’ve just completed a novel which is now with my crit partner for feedback. I handed that ms over with such trepidation, partly because some of the content involved me, out on a limb, telling the truth about some life issues. It’s good to be reminded that, as writers, that’s what we’re called to do.
Lanny

Perhaps I’m missing the point of this blog article, but my FB crowd doesn’t really spend much time being untruthful, so you seem to be witnessing a different form of FB than mine. Sure, we embellish a bit, but no outright lying as such. And sure, some folks out of the fold are lying, just as good storytellers exaggerate to the point of lying. The person who poses as a long-lost fB friend, for example, when in fact you never heard of them, bears no resemblance to the truth.

Your post has a touch of self-righteousness in it when you position yourself as one of the few “truth-tellers” out there, bravely fighting the evil culture to do so. Telling the truth will always be subjective, whether it’s coming from Michele Bachmann, Christopher Hitchens, or the friendly neighborhood pedophile down the street.
- http://www.inamirrordimly.com ed cyzewski
  
  I’m talking about digging into real life issues in our writing vs. posting on facebook about hanging with friends or what you’ve had for lunch. I don’t think you quite caught my angle here. I’m talking about the calling of writers to take us beyond the superficial things we use as distractions on Facebook. I wasn’t implying that people outright lie on Facebook or that I’m some lone freedom fighter for the truth.
  - http://www.wordsfromgodfortoday.blogspot.com Angie in Guernsey
    
    Yes, Ed, I understood that you are talking about deep truths which a blogpost can uncover more readily than brief facebook comments (though I appreciate the point made in an earlier comment that a picture on facebook can be immensely powerful in meaning).
  - http://www.wordsfromgodfortoday.blogspot.com Angie in Guernsey
    
    Yes, Ed, I understood that you are talking about deep truths which a blogpost can uncover more readily than brief facebook comments (though I appreciate the point made in an earlier comment that a picture on facebook can be immensely powerful in meaning).
    
    Facebook IS great for social interaction but you are right about its distractions. I wonder… is the relationship of blogs to facebook similar to that of books to television, in terms of filling in time? Would we have been having this conversation about books 40 or 50 years ago?
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http://www.fallible.com Katy McKenna

Really enjoyed your post, Ed–thank you! I am an aspiring author and have found in my facebook friends eager readers for “real” writing. I often link to a blog post I’ve written, or simply write a longer-than-usual post on fb, and am always surprised at how many readers click “more” to continue reading–and then leave salient comments. To me, it’s like there are thousands of (yes, distracted….) folks scrolling through the kitties and puppies and political screeds, trying to find something to READ. I’m attempting (in my own little corner of Facebook) to meet that pent-up demand. So far, I have not viewed Facebook as a competition, but as a colleague. Thank you for making me think again about this subject, and examine my methods more completely.
- http://www.inamirrordimly.com ed cyzewski
  
  Great thoughts. Yes, Facebook can certainly help. That’s why I still use it. However, it does have a dark side for sure. When we can shine a bit of light in that dark side, we’re doing something deeply meaningful and gratifying as writers.
http://www.sueharrison.com Sue Harrison

Interesting post! I hadn’t thought of FB as a competitor – movies, video games, television, yes – but I have to agree any activity that consumes free time is a potential competitor.

At the risk of being pelted with tomatoes, I’ll confess that I am a capitalist, which means that I believe in FAIR competition. SO, bring on the competitors, they help me hone my writing skills and do a better job of writing the TRUTH!
- http://www.inamirrordimly.com ed cyzewski
  
  I’m fine with competition too, but writers need to know who/what their competition is. So once we know that we’re up against Facebook, I think we can see the importance of honing our craft.
http://www.juliegarmon.com Julie Garmon

Powerful post! You wrote what’s been churning in my mind.

Thank you. Excellent!
http://www.timothyfish.net Timothy Fish

Facebook isn’t about cute kittens. Facebook is what it is because those names in the timeline are attached to real people, people that we know, people we went to school with, people we work with, people we pray with. We aren’t half as interested in a kitten chasing a ball of twine as we are that Scott James, the kid we thought ate kittens for breakfast when we were in school, now takes the time to post a video of a cute kitten. We can’t duplicate that in our writing.
- http://www.inamirrordimly.com ed cyzewski
  
  You’re absolutely right that Facebook can be a place where we make meaningful social interactions and keep in touch with friends. Having moved several times in the past 5 years, FAcebook is essential for keeping in touch. However, I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve logged onto Facebook just to see what’s happening, hoping I’ll find something interesting or distracting. It’s one thing to log in to Facebook once every day or two to keep in touch with friends, but it’s quite another to log in repeatedly in an attempt to find distractions. The latter is how many of us use Facebook, even if we know the former is far better. Thanks for your point!
  - http://einefeistyberg.wordpress.com Cherry Odelberg
    
    I do find myself participating in both on Facebook: meaningful social interaction and logging in for the hundredth time – habitually – just for distraction.
  - http://www.timothyfish.net Timothy Fish
    
    But what you have to ask yourself there is why Facebook? Why not read a book? Why not turn on the television? Why not go weed the garden or clean the house? At heart, we are all social beings. We want to interact with other people. A book can trigger imagination, but never interaction.
    - http://theotherstephenkingonwriting.blogspot.com Stephen H. King
      
      “A book can trigger imagination, but never interaction.” – Ding ding ding! That’s precisely what’s been rolling around in my head all day, put far more eloquently than I was ever able to. Thank you.
      
      That said–say “never” quietly. The days of interactive e-books are coming, and there’s no reason they can’t build multi-reader interactivity over the Whispernet. If somebody will buy it, I’m sure it’ll be built.
    - http://www.inamirrordimly.com ed cyzewski
      
      The point of this article is about where we go for entertainment during leisure time. So Facebook for interaction is great, but I’m talking about the ways folks use Facebook for leisure and to kill time. I should have made a better distinction in the post, but there’s a big difference between those two uses of Facebook. Maybe you don’t go on Facebook to kill time, but I know a lot of us do, and it certainly cuts into time that could be spent reading books, gardening, or cleaning out rabbit litter boxes (the last one mainly applies to me…).
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http://livingthebodyofchrist.blogspot.com/ Connie Almony

I’d never really thought about Facebook as my competition, but you’re right. If I’m reading a lackluster book, I might find myself on Facebook instead. Love what you said about truth. That’s what we are called to. And the best ministry hails from transparency. More people open up and engage with us if they know we’ve “been there.” They know they won’t be judged, but nudged into growth with someone who understands. Thanks for the encouragement to do that!
- Jeanne
  
  Well said, Connie!
http://permissiontobereal.blogspot.com Shauna

That is exactly why I decided to start blogging. After all, truth is stranger than fiction, right? And many times funnier! For me it combined the best of both worlds…entertainment, interaction with friends, truth, and humor in a longer format.

At the risk of sounding shamelessly self promoting, I called my blog “Permission to be Real.” When school started last most of my mom friends were posting facebook status updates like, “I bawled my eyes out when I dropped Johnny off…”

Although I know some mom’s have that legitimate reaction, mine was quite different! When I dropped off all three of my sons at school for the first time, I strode to my car, slammed my door and in the utter silence of my vehicle the Hallelujah Chorus involuntarily exploded in my head!

It made me question whether or not I “loved” my boys as much as everyone else did. Then it occurred to me that surely someone else must have felt that way too. But most of us are busy “protecting our ideal selves” as you said, and therefore being slightly dishonest.

So in blogging I’ve laid myself out there and committed to writing about what is real, honest and funny. Perhaps one day I’ll have enough material to fill a book?!

Enjoyed your post!!
http://einefeistyberg.wordpress.com Cherry Odelberg

“Writers are among the few who have the power to serve up the nourishing power of the truth in a world starving to death on entertainment and distraction. This is our calling if we’re willing to pay the price.
…Facebook is by telling the truth with more boldness and honesty than I thought possible yesterday and with greater depth than a status update.”

Frankly, yes. That is my conscious aim for facebook posts and as I address my manuscript (s).
http://theotherstephenkingonwriting.blogspot.com Stephen H. King

Well-written and enjoyable piece, and the message about the truth in writing is awesome.

I’m having a hard time swallowing the argument that books “compete” with Facebook, though, at least in any real specific meaning of the word compete. To me, that’s like saying toothpaste and shaving cream compete. While they both take up a part of my overall budget (as Facebook and reading both take up a part of my overall day), I make it a point to use each every day. If I tried to use one in the place of another, I wouldn’t like the results much.

All that said, your message about reaching into the reader’s heart with truth is a great one, and I think it’s applicable even in my genre of fantasy, where we get so involved with making stuff up that we forget sometimes what our real purpose is.
- http://www.inamirrordimly.com ed cyzewski
  
  I think the idea of competition here is a very general sense of how much free time people have. With Facebook around, people can choose to use Facebook for distraction or leisure time. I’m asking myself, “Is my writing good enough to make someone forget about Facebook?” I read plenty of books that make me wonder if the Oatmeal has a new cartoon up…
  - http://theotherstephenkingonwriting.blogspot.com Stephen H. King
    
    Yeah, I see your point, but maybe I’m just a different sort of reader. When I’m in the mood to interact with people, I interact with people and no book is going to get in my way. When I’m in the mood to read, I’m in the mood to read, and Facebook can just sit and spin for a while. If I get my eyes into a book that makes me wonder what’s going on in the world(ish) of Facebook, then I put that book down and start another.
Jeanne

Ed, you really got my mind clicking this morning. I hadn’t really considered Facebook as competition, but I can see it as such in the way you described it. I loved the challenge to be real enough in my writing that it invites people to really consider life truths, or to consider things that are really true in their lives.

Facebook is my competition personally becuase it entices me to spend time there rather than writing or interacting with the people who know me best.

Thanks for your thought-provoking post.
- http://www.inamirrordimly.com ed cyzewski
  
  Thanks for clarifying the two aspects of Facebook as competitor for the reader’s and writer’s time. So true!
http://www.leighkramer.com HopefulLeigh

Spot on perspective, Ed! I know social media can be a distraction but I hadn’t thought of it as a competitor before. That’s rather sobering!

I did want to offer a flip side, however. I’ve received many compliments from friends and family the last couple of years over the way I write my FB status updates. This surprises me each and every time. I guess we should never underestimate our “audience” and what will draw them in to our writing.
- http://www.inamirrordimly.com ed cyzewski
  
  Good stuff Leigh. Yes, we can certainly do Facebook well!
http://aboutproximity.com Lisa

Thank you, I love this piece and find it to be so true. I think people are hungry for honesty and authenticity. It refreshes souls. Being real opens doors for Christ to work powerfully. It invites people to extend grace to one another.
http://Www.summerjarviswrites.com Summer

I really wonder about this. Does good writing really tell the truth? Good writing finds themes, exposes epiphanies, transcends the route. Day to day life isn’t really like that. Is it?
- http://www.inamirrordimly.com ed cyzewski
  
  I’m not sure if I understand your question completely, which could be the sleep deprivation of a new born hitting me. At the very least, it seems that writing holds a magnifying glass up to life and takes time to look at it carefully. In my view, “good” writing finds the truth when it does that. Does that answer your question?
  - http://cherionethingivelearned.blogspot.com/ Cheri Gregory
    
    Last night, I attended a performance of four superbly written, crafted, and staged monologues. One was by a man who lost his son to a car accident and his marriage to the resulting grief.
    
    This morning, as I re-played the drama in my mind, I felt like asking him (via Facebook, ironically enough!) “Is that really what happened? Did she really say/do that? Did you really respond that way?”
    
    But I realized that the truth he was communicating was not in the details he staged last night. The truth was in the message he shared about the unfathomable depth of grief at the loss of a child, the bewilderment of being left by a spouse, the courage of the choice to hold on and stay rather than run away.
    
    The specific details of the story he told may or may not have been “true” in that a video camera capturing his life may or may not have verified that things happened exactly this way.
    
    But the little details brought us together in a shared experience of truth.
http://myquirkycity.wordpress.com Heather

Ed, thanks for this. Like you say, I have seen the disaster first-hand for putting vulnerability in facebook, and the comment on-slaught that follows, and I agree that writers may want other venues for that. I have been thinking about what I’m going through, wondering if I should ‘post-it’ in an online medium, and this is a good reminder why I should let it fuel my other writing first.

Thanks
- http://www.inamirrordimly.com ed cyzewski
  
  Thanks for sharing Heather. There really is a tough aspect to social media and personal vulnerability. For example, Facebook can be a great way to ask for prayer in a crisis or to keep many posted about an ongoing situations, but for myself personally at this point, I still choose to reserve my prayer requests primarily for my small group, family, and church. There isn’t a one size fits all way to do this, but it can be tricky.
  - http://myquirkycity.wordpress.com Heather
    
    I agree about the use for it. FB made it easier to keep in touch with others who needed to know about a terminally ill friend. Groups are fantastic for it. But it doesn’t necessarily need to be there for the whole world to see.
http://thoughtsthatmove.blogspot.com/ Wendy Paine Miller

It’s invaluable for us as writers to observe how people are spending their time, especially since we want them to invest time reading our books.

Such an insightful post!

A worthwhile zeitgeist perspective I hadn’t pieced together when thinking about Facebook before.

Thanks for the brain food.
http://www.henwoodtitles.weebly.com Brian Henwood

I love steak. The only thing better than meat and pototoes, is meat and meat.
But sometimes I don’t have the time to sit down at a restaurant or grill up a nice porterhouse.
.
So I hit the McDonald’s drivethrough, and absently marvel at how often an order can go from “Big mac and a Coke” to “Chicken nuggets with a Sprite” in the time it takes me to drive around the corner of a building.
.
Despite the fact that I’d prefer steak, and that the bag they shove at me through the small portal more often than not contains something I didn’t even ask for, I still go to McDonald’s far more than I care to admit.
.
Nevertheless, when I finally do have the time to sit down and enjoy a real meal, I enjoy it even more.
.
Bottom line – McDonald’s will probably always be part of my diet, but there is no competition – Steak > Burgers.
- http://www.henwoodtitles.weebly.com Brian Henwood
  
  Facebook and Reading are the same way. Forgot to mention that important part of my post. I will always participate in social media, but it can never replace reading a good story.
Jennifer

This is lovely: “by telling the truth with more boldness and honesty than I thought possible yesterday and with greater depth than a status update.”

I also like the idea that Facebook is not about truth. It is and it isn’t. I’ll be thinking about that now, though I hadn’t before. Good thoughts, Ed.
http://rogerfloyd.wordpress.com Roger Floyd

I believe the mistake you’re making is trying to compete with Facebook in the first place. If Facebook is causing you so much grief, then do what I do–forget about it. I get on Facebook a couple times a day but stay on only a few minutes just to see what’s going on. I may “Like” a few things, sure, but I find out what I want and get off and I don’t thiink about it for the rest of the day. I do my writing and occasionally post a short note on Facebook about what I did, but otherwise it’s out of my mind. Facebook is of no value whatsoever to serious writers. (That applies even more so to Twitter.) Don’t worry about Facebook, it will only hurt your writing if you let it.
- http://www.inamirrordimly.com ed cyzewski
  
  From my post: ” I’m not saying that we need to fight Facebook toe to toe.” The point here is that people have plenty of ways to distract themselves, and Facebook is one of the key distractions of choice these days. I’m not bothered by Facebook per se, though it does have a dark side. I’m challenged to offer something far better than what folks find on Facebook and to reward them for spending their time with my books and blog posts rather than on Facebook.
Elizabeth Varadan

Great food for thought. I agree that good, honest writing can be more gripping and involving than social networking. Even though I enjoy FB, Twitter, etc. an emotionally honest piece of fiction will lure me away any day. But it’s a nice reminder of what to focus on when writing. The level of communication is just so different. More enduring.
- http://www.inamirrordimly.com ed cyzewski
  
  Thanks for latching on to the calling for writers here. That’s really the point of this post beyond stating the challenge of writing in a world with Facebook. Writers have a calling to offer something quite different and unique from the norms of our entertainment-obsessed culture.
http://yvonnekochanowski.wordpress.com/ Yvonne Kochanowski

Honestly, I never thought about FB as competition! To me, FB is like a quick snack, a few salty crackers or nuts to tie me over until the next meal. A good article is that wonderful lunch at your favorite restaurant. And a great book? It’s the multi-course dinner you’ve cooked for someone you love!
- http://www.inamirrordimly.com ed cyzewski
  
  That’s a very healthy perspective for sure!
http://www.glendafowlow.com Glenda Fowlow

Thanks for this rare reminder to speak truth and the importance of seeking long term gain rather than short term gratification.

You stopped me in my tracks this morning. God bless.
http://www.dianadart.com Diana Dart

“Facebook is not the place to write about an emotional outburst like that. It just doesn’t work.”

This really hit home for me, and is so often the reason why I can’t/don’t update my status (um, did I just admit to having emotional outbursts on a regular basis???)

The FB/book competition is reminiscent of the video game/book battle for kids. We only have so much leisure time, and as authors we need to be fresh enough, bold enough and just plain good enough to draw our readers into our worlds, and away from the powerful screen world.

Great prompts and thoughts, Ed. Thanks.
- http://www.inamirrordimly.com ed cyzewski
  
  Exactly, and when we talk about games on Facebook, look out! I avoid them because I know I’d get addicted. There’s a whole other aspect to this that I didn’t touch on: marketing through games. This is a huge topic on marketing blogs that I read from time to time to keep up on culture. It’s downright scary to read marketing professionals talk about all of the different ways to distract, entertain, and “train” people to waste their time in order to sell them products. That’s a whole other topic, but it’s lurking in the background here for sure.
Amanda G. Stevens

Like most things, the usefulness of Facebook depends on the user. But there are so many people out there who do use it to post what-I-had-for-lunch statuses and play Castleville & Farmville & Vampireville … As a culture, I think it’s not an exaggeration to say we are “amusing ourselves to death.” That very mindset is competition for deep, unflinching fiction.

I love to lurk here. I’m frequently compelled to think about things in a new way. Rachelle, thanks so much for this blog. And, Ed, thank you for making me ponder honesty this morning–in my writing and in the books I love most.
- http://www.inamirrordimly.com ed cyzewski
  
  Thanks Amanda. I probably should have inserted some caveats about the good ways to use Facebook. However, I think it does pose a real challenge for authors to deeply engage their readers in a culture that thrives on quick laughs and “light” entertainment. Glad you commented!
http://blessed-are-the-pure-of-heart.blogspot.com Andrew Budek-Schmeisser

I’m not really sure that FB is a competitor at all.

Reading for leisure has never been all that widespread – I’ve seen it quoted that 15% of the population regularly read novels.

I suspect that this number doesn’t change much, generationally (although widespread reading for leisure is a fairly recent phenomenon). So – the people who read are still going to read. I know I do – FB brings me up to date on things, but it’s not entertainment, It’s an informational tool.

FB just doesn’t satisfy the that which reading nourishes. It can’t; and there will always be people who will recognize that – and buy our books!
- http://www.inamirrordimly.com ed cyzewski
  
  If that number is true for readers, we know that a lot more people are spending time on Facebook. While good things can happen on Facebook, we all know that plenty of folks waste time there (see: http://mashable.com/2011/09/30/wasting-time-on-facebook/). All of that makes me wonder if I can write better stories and books and blog posts in order to redirect a small portion of that time that could otherwise be spent wasting time of Facebook. Social interaction aside, there is a time-wasting aspect of Facebook that is appealing to folks, hello Farmville, and that is where authors can offer something better.
  - http://blessed-are-the-pure-of-heart.blogspot.com Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
    
    Those are good points – the time-wasting aspect through games like Farmville is significant.
    
    But I still wonder – it seems to me that FB may have simply taken the place of other time-wasters, like sitting on the stoop on a summer evening. I would postulate that God designed us with a set-point for goofing off, and that it won’t really be different for a given individual, no matter what technology’s available. After they’ve goofed off long enough, they’ll do something constructive.
http://blessed-are-the-pure-of-heart.blogspot.com Andrew Budek-Schmeisser

“FB as competition” may also me a result of technology changing perceptions and expectations – FB has created a ‘class’ of psuedo-intellectuals. I don’t mean that disrespectfully, but it’s allowed easy access to high-end communication/entertainment technology to groups of people who never had it.

In other words – we expect a lot more from many FB users than we should, in terms of being open to reading.

Think of Archie and Edith Bunker – did they read? Probably not. Today, would they FB? Edith, probably yes. Archie, unwillingly. Granted, they’re fictional characters, but their success was based on how close they hit something – in ALL of us.

PLEASE don’t read any sort of discrimination into what I said. None is intended.
http://jilldomschot.com Jill

What exactly is untruthful about a cute kitten?
http://www.artesianministries.org Donna Pyle

Ed, thanks for such a thought-provoking post. I’ve read countless posts about how Facebook constitutes massive time distractions for writers (especially if on a deadline and procrastinating). Yep, been there. But I’ve never thought about the level of writing required to lure a READER away from FB. What a revelation! As a non-fiction writer, I strive to convey Scriptural truths in ways that allow readers to view those passages and/or underlying truths in a new light. Your post unveils a transformational writing layer to consider. Thanks so much!
http://canigetanotherbottleofwhine.blogspot.com/ Kate

Excellent post! I needed this today. I never really thought about my blog having to compete with Facebook. I’m encouraged to know that I’m not the only one who feels this way. Thanks for your honesty.
http://www.authorpeterdehaan.com/ Peter DeHaan

I’ve read a short story on Twitter, so why not a book on Facebook?
Patti Mallett

You wrote what I most needed to see in print today.

Thanks, Rachelle, for your honesty.
MariaB

I’m Facebook friends with many authors on Facebook and while I note that many are hawking their self-published books the published authors make rare appearances.
http://www.distillingwords.com Chris Lovie-Tyler

I think if I thought of Facebook and other entertainment options as competition it’d paralyse me. Thankfully, I don’t. I just write with everything I’ve got and hope there are still people out there who want something more substantial to chew on than the junk food Facebook (et al.) offers. And judging by the comments on this post, there are. There is hope!

“unflinching honesty broke me” – Wow. If I experience that as a writer, I’ll know I’m getting somewhere.

Thanks for the thoughtful post, Ed.
http://amuseorbemused.com JT Adamson

JT Adamson likes this!
http://neuroticworkaholic.blogspot.com Neurotic Workaholic

I’m not on Facebook so it’s not really a distraction for me. But from what I’ve seen and heard about it, it seems to me like a lot of people aren’t 100% honest on Facebook. That is, they present their photos and their status updates, but it’s like they’re trying to create a certain image of themselves; they leave out all the things that deviate from that image. We all do that at some point, but still…
Youtube is pretty distracting for me. I think I got a lot more work done before I started watching videos of cute puppies on Youtube.
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http://www.youngfocus.org Ann van Wijgerden

Fantastic piece! This is proof-of-the-pudding why Facebook is no match for good writing. I’m actually a blatant FB user, at every opportunity using Facebook to draw attention to the real stuff. (I’ll be posting a link to your post just as soon as I’ve finished this comment.)
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