When my three sons were young, the Internet didn’t exist. I worked part-time as a freelance writer and wrote my own picture books in the early morning darkness, before they woke up. Time was of the essence. After I dropped them off for morning daycare, I worked continuously, never stopping to grocery shop or cut a hangnail. As soon as it was time to pick them up, I dropped work midsentence. I was incredibly focused. I got in the habit of using my time wisely because I needed to make money, I would go crazy if I wasn’t creative, and writing was the job I wanted. So I had to be extremely disciplined.

I even balked at email as a time waster when it first appeared, but it soon became the way to communicate, and it certainly helped me with the anthologies of teen poetry I was compiling. Nevertheless, I was afraid of Facebook and Twitter when they were invented because people always talked about cruising around and losing track of time. One author I knew spent two hours a day helping teens that read her books and asked her questions.

I had at least 80 picture books under my belt and I worked on five to seven books at a time in order to make a living, so I didn’t have much time for social media. I was starting to write novels, too–Metamorphisis: Junior Year and NAKED have been published–and they took years to complete. While I was intensely researching artist Camille Claudel for NAKED, I gratefully turned to the Internet to study museum sites in the U.S. and France.

The uses of social media, particularly Facebook, became obvious as time went on. Because writing novels takes at least three years, I started working as artist in residence at the Palo Alto Children’s Theatre where I needed to communicate with teens on Facebook. It was essential for my projects with them– plays, short films, and our teen monologue book.

Then came the Oscars that my son James was hosting. I was a “mominee.” The producers opened a Twitter account for me and answered all my questions about the site. It was fun to tweet about the Oscars and I saw that my followers had information for me and were interested in my books, my classes in acting on film, and my sons, of course. I often work with my sons on creative endeavors and I was able to keep my followers abreast of our projects.

My fear of time spent on social media slowly dissolved when I realized I was in control. The benefits came to the forefront as well– it’s invaluable for research, it helps me keep in contact with other writers, it enables me to observe contemporary culture, which I write about in my novels. In NAKED, one of the protagonists is Jesse Lucas who meets Camille Claudel, Rodin’s muse and fellow sculptor who has emerged from a statue in the Stanford Rodin Sculpture Garden to heal her past. Jesse is steeped in contemporary culture and my online forays help me understand that culture.

I check in on Facebook to see and comment on what the young adults I’m working with are doing and discussing. I listen to them when we’re together and they love showing up in the plays I’ve written for them. I ask my Twitter followers questions. I’m inspired by other writers and friends. Social media also helps me get the word out about my work.

It’s been fun to discuss my adult novel NAKED, and invite people to the book talks with my son Tom, who illustrated the novel. Some of my followers come to my talks and I get to meet them in person. Social media has become my friend. Granted, I still have to be disciplined. Sometimes when I’m wandering around on Facebook or Twitter, I ask myself if I’m supposed to be doing something else, and sometimes the answer is, “You’re supposed to be relaxing. Wander for a while.” And sometimes I have to tell myself, “Time to get off and get back to work.” I’m in the driver’s seat, and I have a wonderful resource if I need it.

BAY AREA! Betsy and her son, Tom, are speaking about NAKED (which Tom illustrated) at the Santa Clara Library on January 26th. 

Posted on 1/17/2014

Written by Betsy Franco

Betsy Franco writes children’s books, poetry collections, and YA novels. Her debut novel for adults is Naked, which Publisher’s Weekly compared to Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris. Her website is betsyfranco.com, she’s on Facebook, and on Twitter, you can find her @francosmom.

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