Drew Koshgarian is a writer and baker living in Los Angeles. She supplies pastries at UCB Sunset’s Inner Sanctum Cafe. You can find Koshgarian’s work online at The Impolite, a collection of comic writing from LA comedians that she edited with Matt Ingebretson and Bridger Winegar, as well as on Dick Pics, her podcast with Julia Prescott, and on her Tumblr. She likes her family.
This week Koshgarian spoke with me about three of her favorite tweets, and about handling social media in general, expanding or explaining tweets, and how Twitter helps her examine her attitude.
Koshgarian: There is just no chance the guy in question saw this or knew this was about him. We barely know each other. The only thing I know about him is that he fingered my friend, and where he works.
Aside from this interview, are you ever asked to expand upon or explain any of your tweets, and what do you think of that?
Sometimes, when I tweet a lot about a particular subject or joke, some extra nice person will say I should write a non-tweet about it. Like, a blog or book, those aren’t tweets. Or a comedy set. Something like that. I like doing longer stuff, when I can. Twitter is 140 characters shot into a mail tube. It’s so low stakes, which is good and bad for my writing. Good for an exercise, not so good for real development.
Also, sometimes twitter people will ask me to explain, or specify something – or rarely my significant other will ask me where I was coming from when I wrote something. I try to write things that are concise and self-sufficient, but I’m not always, so I don’t awfully mind explaining. And I’m not one of those people who insist my jokes are “just jokes.†Jokes are also thoughts, of one kind or another. All of them. They come out the brain.
How do you think your voice on Twitter compares to your writing and personality outside of Twitter?
It’s weird because I occasionally treat Twitter like a hazardous waste bin, and just go there to put whiny or negative thoughts I would be embarrassed to say in person. That is both rude and fine. If anything, it reminds me to fix my attitude, like realizing you have shit on your face when you see yourself in a mirror. So I guess I would say that I am a lot the same but with slightly less griping.
It would explain a lot. I try to be an eye-opener.
How has the way you use Twitter changed over time?
When I started I thought it was so funny to use a whole lot of hashtags. Like, hash-tagging whole sentences. Hilarious. And I didn’t tweet so much social/cultural awareness stuff. Hopefully that is just an ongoing maturity thing in life in general: caring more, having more perspective, being less of a little jerk.
Do you like (or in the past have you liked) sharing your writing on other social media, or is Twitter an exception?
I write long posts on Facebook and Tumblr. Short stories and poems on Tumblr, as well. But Twitter is the only place I get gross about intercourse and love-making. My aunt is on Facebook but not on Twitter, and she doesn’t know about intercourse yet, so I don’t like to get gross where she can see and I could ruin her life.
I like posting stuff on Facebook, it’s efficient. I get that people get annoyed when Facebook isn’t used for cat-videos and promotion of a comedy show, but one of the best things about social media is that it’s democratically whatever anyone wants it to be.
I got very jealous one night of an outdoor cat because the cat seemed very at ease and brave. And I am probably an indoor cat but who wants to think that way? Forget I said anything.
Do you edit or delete tweets at all?
All the time. My motivations for tweeting are diverse, so I delete a fair number of self-pity tweets, especially if they’re not even funny. And I’ll totally sit down and spend 20 minutes writing one tweet, or draft it and come back to it. I do like the ones my brain just spits out. I gave those as my tweets for this.
What are your favorite and least favorite things about being on Twitter?
Avoiding stuff I’m scared of by wasting time on Twitter is one of the worst things in my life. No kidding. But I have met several incredible people, connected with artists I’ve loved for years, had a chance to build my (terrible) confidence as a writer. Most of all it’s a place I can write jokes that are meant to be read. I’m not a comedian but I really like jokes.
Jenny Nelson lives and writes in Brooklyn and works at Funny or Die.