Pieces of Flair!

I don't do Myspace or have a website...yet. And I've only had a blog for a week. But I do have a Facebook Page. Although new at that too, I've become enamored with this ridiculously fun application called "Pieces of Flair." For those of you who don't Facebook (I think it's now a verb), POF looks exactly like this cool bulletin board to your left. If I were Blogger savvy by now, I'd have a handy dandy link right *HERE* for you to click on and get it for yourself. But sadly, I am not. (If you feel like telling me how to do that, bring it on!)

So the way this bad boy works, is that you first get a plain bulletin board, and then you shop for buttons or "Flair" that reflect your personality. On my board for example, there is everything from yoga and chocolate to snowflakes, daughters, TV shows, and anything else that catches my fancy. I even have some writerish ones that say things like, "Careful, you may end up in my novel." The catch is, however, that the only way to get more Flair, is to give it away. And you'll want more. Trust me.

My friend's high school daughter, knowing I was new to Facebook and a confessed Flairaholic, sent me more Edward Cullen Flair than I could ever need or want. This has come in handy because if I pass it on, I get more credits. Therefore, if I have sent you "Twilight" Flair...It's not 'cuz I am a vampire obsessed groupie. It's because I am passing it on and earning more sweet tea Flair for myself! That's right. You heard me. Last night, after sending a few POF gifts, I decided to really start making my board ME. So I looked for my one vice... my crack cocaine... my good ol' southern SWEET TEA. As you might expect, I almost did a back flip when I found the "I love Sweet Tea" button. Not only that, but there were probably five pages of sweet tea stuff. So I'm pretty sure if you loved Different Strokes, you could get a "Whatcha talkin' 'bout Willis?!" button. (Hold on, let me check) Yes Sir. There it is! Wait, I am gonna look for the stupidest thing I can find ...cornbread.

HOLY MACKERAL! There are seven "Cornbread" buttons! See how fun this is! Ahem...So How does this apply to writing? Well, I knew I needed to work on really developing the main characters in my new YA novel. So I mentally made Flair Boards for them. They're all cool Facebookers of course. And sure enough, I discovered a few things. Several of them only had two buttons which meant I needed to know more about them. And Emerson, my MC's Board, looked exactly like mine! So I knew immediately that Emerson was too much like Katie and I needed to separate myself from her a bit. Try it out. Not only is it fun in real life, but you might just learn something about your book characters that you didn't know.

Rock on Pieces of Flair! (I'll bet "Rock on!" is a button)

P.S. For those of you tempted to join Facebook, be forewarned. My friend Jason said it best, "Congrats on Facebook....You just became three hours less productive daily."