A slightly lazy post today (post-Christmas slump, anyone?!), but hopefully you'll find it interesting. If you've read my blog, you've probably seen my Twitter feed, but if you've not stopped by my Twitter page lately, these are some of the tweets you missed during Christmas week. 

12 Days of Book Sales: A Dozen Holiday Book Promotion Ideas:http://bit.ly/TgPn6M via @duolit 

YOU are the author of your own life. If you don't like the page you're on, Rewrite It. ~@emitoms #quote RT @JeffSheehan@BrookeGriffin_

Anyone going to Notts Festival of Words in Feb? (I know, I know, but Feb isn't that far away now!) http://ow.ly/gfELN 

RT @thecreativepenn Waterstones Piccadilly goes crazy for the Hobbit http://pbs.twimg.com/media/A-kc96DCcAESv5U.jpg …

#wednesdaywritein 19 via @cakeshortnsweet "A Liar Like Me"http://wp.me/pBHc0-RW 

Help a #goodcause! INTERNATIONAL DAY OF THE IMPRISONED WRITER http://buff.ly/TrvyuJ  #tweets4authors

Writing a Book is an Adventure http://www.advicetowriters.com/home/2012/12/24/writing-a-book-is-an-adventure.html … #writing #writecraft RT @AdviceToWriters

What's your favourite Christmas book? From The Snowman to The Grinch, here are Stylist Magazine's top festive... http://fb.me/RX4SIIgn 

Yet another great bookish Christmas tree! http://fb.me/CMQbAx5P 

Writers, readers - you should stop by more often to get more of the good stuff. By that I mean international competition details, online writing events, tips and inspiration to help your writing, blogs I think are worth a read etc etc.... And if you like what you see, don't forget to retweet!

Catch you next time!

Lou x

Find me on Facebook...
...and on Twitter!

Image courtesy of Wall Blog

#Cleverhashtags, like the humorous #replacesongtitleswithturkey, are great games to join in with. And I have raved about hashtags in the past in terms of their #magicalpowers of humanising your tweets, #networking and #research. Today I'm going to forget all that.

These are the 8 reasons why good #writers should hate hashtags.

1.       Hashtags are the bane of your life if you're a #grammarnazi - and every #writer should be close to this politically. Evidence? You cannot add any punctuation to a hashtag otherwise it breaks into two. For instance, #itsbeginningtolookalotlikechristmas is one floating about the Twittersphere this December. #ImGladThat someone had the sense to create #AmWriting instead of #ImWriting... 

2.       #Cramming words together in one giant blob is not attractive. Although #itsfunnyhow your brain can still compute what the tag is supposed to say, #IMiss the spaces in between the words. 

3.       It's even worse when the hashtag's spelt wrong! See #faulsehope and #thatakwardmomentwhen.

4.       Sometimes they’re used excessively to emphasise things (e.g #amazing or #epicfail). I do like this about hashtags, as it can add #emotional flavour to your tweet, but #oneisenough, people! Try to express how you feel with actual sentences, please, for me?!

5.       Hashtags are ruining speech in the English language. Much like the ‘txtspk’ phenomenon which threatened #English essays in every #school, a hashtag speech #addiction is developing. #Youcantbetakenseriouslyif you name drop hashtags into #daily conversations.

6.       Hashtags can breed negativity. #ImSickOf, case in point. Writers don't need that vibe, and it doesn't help the person tweeting about it either. #Getoffyourass, try to #makeadifference to your or someone else's life, or quit complaining! 

7.      #Whatwomenwant is an example of ridiculous hashtags which yet again make me despise their use. If you take #twominutes to read this kind of #junk you’ll see what I mean. 90% of them are being detrimental to their sex by #playingon their #stereotypes and slagging off their own or their ex. If you're #venting, I won't #follow you. Writers, you know you're #wastingtime better spent #writing if you're using these!!!

8.       Hashtags can be (unintentionally?) #racist. Take a look at #firstworldproblems and #stereotyping for examples. I'm sure not all the #questionable tweets intended to sound racist, but you have to be careful how you come across when you hit the 'tweet' button, even if it's supposed to be a #funny comment on #society.

And now I'm going to tweet this #blog post. Probably with a hashtag or two attached. Feel free to #retweet!

Lou x

P.S. Apologies for being a little late with my blog this week, haven't been feeling too top. I'm beginning to #bounceback though - see you next week!

Find me on Facebook…
…And on Twitter

You may have seen my most recent blog post below on how to use hashtags to get the best out of Twitter, on a recycling theme. And now, to my absolute favourite topic... WRITING!!!! I couldn't forget my dear scribblers!

There are a un-countable blogs and forums where you can find hashtags for writers (e.g. Book Cover Cafe), so Google until your heart's content. 

Here are my top six if you're desperate to get started:

#writerwednesday or #ww For networking with other writers - only for use on a Wednesday 

#ff This means 'Follow Friday' - a great way to recommend and find other Tweeps you might be interested in following. 

#fridayreads This is a weekly hashtag (used on Fridays, of course!) to show the world what you're reading at the moment. It can also be used to promote your book, if you can encourage your fans to include your Twitter name in their #fridayreads tweets! 

#mustread Loved that book? Want to recommend it to others? Why not finish your tweet with this hashtag?

#amwriting This can be any kind of writing (e.g. song writing, letters, recipes). It's not novel or short story specific, which I can find frustrating, but it's interesting as a networking tool. 

#writingprompt Great to get the creative juices flowing.

Let me know what you think in the comments box below, where you, as a writer, stop by Twitter. Have a great week - oh, and find me @MissWriteUK!

Lou x

Pun intended...

Yes, I'm a writer. But another passion (and day job) of mine recycling. I thought I'd combine the two today to show you how to get the most out of your hashtags on Twitter, and particularly if you're into recycling.

If you're a writer, stay tuned. I'm going to blog a nod to us hard working scribblers very soon, since this blog is, and will remain, centred around creative writing.

I've been very active on Twitter for about 4 months now. One of the best tips I can give new Twitter users is to (relevant) hashtag your tweets until you run out of characters -140 max.

What’s a hashtag?
**Quick shout out and thanks to Andy White for explaining it so clearly to me in the early days**
Hashtags are a method of joining conversations on Twitter. They are words or phrases used in tweets, which have the ‘#’ symbol placed at the beginning of the word. There are no spaces or punctuation in them. When you click on one (normally highlighted in green), Twitter reveals a stream of everyone’s tweets which include that particular hashtag.

An example of this is #pmqs for the BBC’s Prime Minister's Questions. This hashtag quite often trends on Wednesdays due to the weekly TV coverage live from the Houses of Parliament. Searching for #pmqs, you can see all the tweets where people on Twitter (‘Tweeps’) are posting about PMQs. Comments and moaning, jokes and quotes – politics is a popular topic on Twitter.

Ok, I understand that. So, how can I use a hashtag to my advantage?
Hashtags are a great way to learn about subjects you're interested in (e.g. recycling), to get more exposure, build relationships, and therefore increase your own following. As mentioned above, hashtags are a link to a conversation, to be included in tweets that are relevant to a specific topic. So, if you're interested in recycling, you could tweet something short like

Found a place to #recycle my #tetrapak cartons for the first time today - #proud!

This means your post will be visible in the three hashtag conversations of #recycle (talk of all things recycling), #tetrapak (type of rubbish - yes there are hashtags for rubbish!!)  and #proud (Tweeps pleased with themselves on a plethora of achievements). All three hashtag streams will feature this tweet. That's exposure for you!

Please note: Hashtags are Twitter limited; they DO NOT work on Facebook, but I have noticed it’s quickly becoming a method of showing emotions, like with emoticons: #smile and #grr are popular. These do not link into the Twitter conversations though.

You might do well to remember that hashtags can backfire on you, like McDonalds found out recently to their relative undoing when they created a hashtag to encourage customers' feedback on their food. Within a matter of hours horror stories were flooding in. Play it safe - never say anything you wouldn't say in public, and try not to open yourself up for a fall!

If you're into all things green, you can also follow accounts like ‘waste reducing guru' Unconsumption  @unconsumption, WRAP’s Love Food Hate Waste campaign @wasteawarefood, and the UK Environment Agency @EnvAgency, among many others.

Don't forget to check if your favourite charity (e.g. @UNICEF), local Council (e.g. @RecycleNptshire), grocery store (e.g. @Waitrose), favourite singer (e.g. @official_flo for Flo Rida) etc. has a Twitter page. The world is your limit!

It's really not that hard. Just be polite, interesting and honest. So, what are you waiting for? Get making a change to your world via Twitter and make the most of those recycling themed hashtags! 

Oh, and you can follow me on Twitter @MissWriteUK

Lou x