“I’m listening to her and I realize I have no idea what she’s saying.” 

It was cute in its very rarity, two older gentlemen were comparing notes on what it was like to speak with their wives. They went on to say that so much of the conversation seemed to take place within their spouse’s head that it was difficult to follow when they made leaps to other topics. 
 
I imagine my husband could relate to this. At points in time he will ask me what my thought process was that led to an, apparently, out of the blue subject change or question. It is quite funny to go back and track it: “Well…. We were discussing vacation, and I thought of the bats in Tahoe. That reminded me of the zoo, which reminded me of summer camps which reminded me of Girl Scouts which reminded me that I was in charge this weekend which reminded me of the work I still needed to do on my computer which reminded me that it was running slowly. So…. Can we call someone to fix it or not?”

The danger, as a writer though, is that this can easily happen in my writing as well. It is clear, at least in my head, why my character does something. But, unless the reader somehow has psychic access to those personal thoughts it can appear to be a random , or worse, out of character, action to them.

Editing my own work does not really help with this (unless it is years later and even I can’t remember how I reached a certain place). What can help, though, is having an objective third party review my work. When I hear questions like, “but why did she xyx?” I know I have made a leap that my readers won’t be able to follow. 
 
Sadly, these leaps happen more frequently than I like, both in my writing and in real life.  I believe it is the problem with being creative… our imagination never shuts down, even when our husbands are telling us something they think is critical. Somehow, I will still end up thinking about the airplane, then the weather, then the cold, then the jacket then the….. 

… Come on, Honey, keep up.

“Some nasty things are being said about you….”

I should have known better; and in fact, my first instinct, I am grateful to say, was who would want to say nasty things about me? But then that little voice (and my creativity) kicked in and I came up with all sorts of answers. So, of course, I went to look at the supposed site where these statements were coming from….

And guess what?  I got scammed. The response from my Twitter friends was very supportive. Although they were sent a similar mass email from my account, they all reassured me that it happens all the time on Twitter. It is sad, but true, our world is filled with people who use the most obnoxious means to inject themselves into our lives. 
 
But, while these people might be obnoxious, they are also very clever; because they have used the psychological phrase most likely to get click-throughs…. Even by people who know better. The idea that people could be saying mean things about us hits on many different levels. At the top layer, is the obvious desire to be liked… to be held in high esteem by others. But even more fundamental, this idea threatens our need for belonging (if friends believe these thing they won’t be our friend anymore) and on an even deeper level threatens our need for personal safety (if my readers believe this they won’t want to buy my books anymore). 

It is a solid offense designed specifically to get our instant reaction. Now, if a salesperson used it on us, we might, at first, react as they wanted… check out the car or the house or the time-share they are selling; but I imagine once we knew it was only a ploy, our response to that person would be swift and negative and they would not get our  business.

Ah… but here is where the internet is so useful… because, I have no idea where this phishing scam originated, nor how to stop it.  Twitter, the company, knows it exists, but they are unable to catch-up with the perpetrators. And there is no one to confront and call foul! 

So, we change our password, we apologize to those affected, and
we go back to business as usual, thinking all the while, but what if…. Part of
my psyche now holds the idea that floating out there is someone who wishes me
harm; whether in the form of nasty statements or access to my twitter list.



The good news, though, is that either way the damage is offset by
the community of supporters who reaffirm those needs that were threatened. They
reassure us that although nasty stuff happens, we need not feel
alone.