Twitter. I finally figured out what the fuss is all about.

I never really understood the whole Twitter thing. Seemed all a bit stalkerish to me actually. And as for the people sending Tweets – well, don’t you have anything better to do with your time? I mean, does anyone really care that Kim Kardashian “Misses her humpkin”?

Apparently about 6.5 million people do. Which does make me just slightly concerned about what our world is coming to.

But a strange thing happened this week. I finally figured out what the fuss is all about.

Writing is a funny business. When I was Corporate Girl, some days I longed for five minutes to myself. Especially when we moved offices and I went from private office sanctuary (with functioning door) to open plan, having time to myself (for important corporate type things of course) became a thing of the past. If I needed a five minute escape I would have to lock myself in one of the little telephone rooms. Unfortunately, these were made of glass, so inevitably someone would see you in there and come knocking because they had something urgent to discuss with you, you know, like brokering peace in Palestine or something.

Anyway, I digress (as per usual). As a writer, I get no such distractions. In fact, most of my day it is just me, myself and I. And sometimes some sheep of course. Take yesterday for example, apart from speaking to my parents and grandparents on Skype, a phone call with my good friend Janet, a quick chat with the neighbours cat (very one sided, kind of like the sheep), the lady behind the counter at Sainsbury’s (who had a very thick accent and I couldn’t understand anyway), and the lovely James from Clapham Computers, I spoke to no one.

And as for today – well, it’s 10:57am and I haven’t spoken to a soul. I just read this sentence aloud just so I could hear the sound of my own voice, make sure it’s still working. And while I’ve always been quite good with my own company, having lived on my own for many years and spent more years in singledom than coupledom, the silence does get a bit, well, bloody boring after a while.

And then I discovered Twitter. You see, Twitter is like a nightclub for writers. Or perhaps a café. Maybe even a dating service. Because not all writers are reclusive like J.D. Salinger. It’s where writers, who are generally sitting at a computer on their pat malone all day, gather to chat, trade insults, discuss all things book (and non-book) related, and generally go to get their social fix that they can’t get sitting around in their living rooms wearing their trakkie daks and dressing gowns.

This is not exactly a new concept. The poet Emily Dickinson was a total recluse, barely leaving the house for about 30 years, only speaking to people through her closed front door. Yet, she still traded letters with other writers and poets for many years. Only now we can do this in real time without the cost of the stamp. Although I’m not sure Emily would have been able to get across the angst of 30 years seclusion in 140 characters or less.

So I started following all sorts of writers, agents and publishers – Australian, American, British, Irish. It’s amazing how many are on here. And how connecting to them on Twitter makes you realise that these writers too are struggling with a setting or character, trying to write a certain number of words per day, their computers having melt downs. It kind of makes me feel like part of the gang.

But the best thing of all? I came across the writers of one of my all time favourite novels, a he-said she-said romantic comedy called Come Together, by Josie Lloyd and Emlyn Rees. So I dropped them a quick tweet (see, I'm up with the lingo already). And I actually got one back from Emlyn. One that said Good luck, and if you ever want feedback on your book, give us a shout.

Seriously, he did.

Either he is totally bored, a sucker for punishment, or just a really, really nice bloke.

So I get it now, this Twitter thing. If you’ve got a particular interest, like I do with books and authors, it can be bloody enlightening actually. And a major procrastination tool of course. I’m sure that’s why most writers are really into it, just between you and me.