writing - the agony and the ecstasy and the selling oneself

I am restarting my blog though not creating a new one, as this is still 'the start of the rest of my life', but a different start, as soon I will be (in my head, anyway) a 'writer'. A daunting title and what does it mean?

For me, it means I've had some affirmation that my writing is at least okay because I'll have the piece of paper that says 'MA Creative Writing' on it. I know that doesn't mean I'll be successful, or even that I'm a great writer, but it does mean I've had some pretty in-depth writing experiences, shared my writing with some exceptionally talented people and had to try different genres of writing which have (hopefully) helped me to identify where my strengths lie.

We had a chat from an agent yesterday, who, astonishingly, came down from London for two hours. This is the first agent I've spoken to face to face, and what she said about the business was daunting - but then I knew that anyway. Particularly daunting for luddites like me, for whom the word 'networking' sends shivers down my spine. For no one can define exactly how one actually 'networks'. If it means twittering, then what does one say in the amount of words/letters you have to say it in? 'Read me I'm a good writer'? Give a link to my blog? Put one sentence at a time of my book, so over ten years they can read the whole thing? I don't think so.

When I look at twitter, I read what a dog might read looking at my book: 'dgjalgjna;g nea;haeoenavlna[tral'. Something like that. It just makes no sense to me and I never know where the original 'conversation' has begun, so it's like eavesdropping on someone in the middle of their conversation but never actually being able to determine what has gone on. I'm just not that twenty first century.

Still, I know I have to learn, as agents will look at a blog and assess ME on the quality of it, they'll look at twitter and how many followers you've got (in my case, under ten, because I never go on it and my name is something like 'Fivefour twothree' because every name I tried was used up. Not exactly awe inspiring, is it?

Any veteran twitters who stumble across this, please give me some tips. It could mean the difference between publication and starvation - well, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but between publication and pub (which is where I currently work). I'd like the 'lication' bit as well, please.