Do writers need social media?Chetan Bhagat apparently does but not JK Rowling or Salman Rushdie. However, Rushdie enjoys his Twitter feuds with critics and rivals, affording us enjoyable glimpses into his wit and his unvarnished human need to answer a jibe with a retort.
The social media also is graced by the likes of the prolific Clarissa Pinkola Estes who writes beautiful, copious notes on her Facebook wall and advises all of us ‘brave souls’ to simplify our lives and deepen our hearts. She wrote recently, “Close all windows. Decide which ONE to open. When done for now, close that window. Choose another window then, only one. Deal.”
So as you can see, if you pay attention, there are world famous writers on a wall near you, giving you life-changing advice. There was Maya Angelou, in fact still is…sending messages from beyond the grave to commemorate the birthday of her lifelong friend James Baldwin. Messages like, “Sometimes a woman needs a man who is a brother friend more than she needs a romantic attachment. She needs someone who is strong enough to say to her, ‘Say baby, the way you acted the other night, that’s not right, or that wasn’t the swiftest thing you could do.’ At the same time she needs him to be strong enough to say, ‘Hey baby, that was so brilliant, I am so proud of you, you were wonderful’.
This is gilded stuff, straight from the wisdom pools of writers who lived and created without media trumpets and even now are present on the social media in the most refined way possible.
Watch Elizabeth Gilbert negotiate the space between too much and too little media exposure as she promotes her new book , The Signature of All Things on Facebook. She does not sing her own praises or tell you about gushing reviews. She connects with readers and offers her own life as a chapter we could read and learn from. Metanoia being one of her favourite words..yes Metanoia, “A process of fundamental change in the human personality.” And she will have you know, “I have been on so many journeys in my life already, but these days the adventure I’m embarking upon is definitely an inside job – trying to figure out how to manage my relationships with family, friends, and loved ones in a way that minimises the potential for drama and resentment, and maximises the potential for peace and ease. This journey has entailed much study of old habits and troubling patterns – trying to work out from past failures how to maybe not do it that way again in the future. WORKING ON IT…And you? What are you working on? “
As readers share their own life stories with her, you realise how much an Estes and a Gilbert can do with what for some writers is just a space for self-promotion of the crudest kind.
There are also interesting pages like Writers Write, Brain Pickings and many more on Facebook that celebrate writers and their ideas in condensed, easy to consume capsules. My favourite literary page though is Humans of New York. Yes, you heard it right…literary, because it tells stories about humanity in a nutshell without diluting their essence. Only the greatest of storytellers can accomplish that.
So read the story of a woman who waited till she was 55 for the love of her life. And yes, the wait was worth it because he looked like Peter O’ Toole! The story of a tough kid who won’t give up on his education no matter how hard it gets because, “It is destined.”
And of a father who says,”I took my daughter to Disney World over the 4th of July. And seeing her face as those fireworks went off gave me goosebumps. She looked so amazed…
It just really made me feel like I’d accomplished something.” What can be a better story to tell, retell and remember than this one even if it is written on a virtual page and not real?
with Reema Moudgil works for The New Indian Express, Bangalore, is the author of Perfect Eight, the editor of Chicken Soup for the Soul-Indian Women, an artist, a former RJ and a mother. She dreams of a cottage of her own that opens to a garden and where she can write more books, paint, listen to music and just be.