Facebook Hell - Writing Update by Greg Luti
- Greg Luti
- Aug 12
- 6 min read
Updated: Aug 12
A writing update that mixes practical behind-the-scenes work with honest reflection. In “Facebook Hell,” Greg Luti discusses cleaning up spam on social media, the modern expectation that writers must be personally likable, and his ongoing progress on the flash fiction collection *Little Fires*.
Updating the Website
Recently I have been doing a few tasks that are not really exciting for readers to learn about, which is of course, why I am going to tell you about them.
The first boring task I completed was updating my website to reflect more of the writer in me, not the editor. It used to have more of an editor feel, where you would think I was an editor more than an author, but now I made the site reflect both equally. I do plan on adding more pages to the site, related to the books, but that is not something I am doing right now, since there is another task occupying my time more than that. (That ladies and gentlemen is called a transition sentence. You use it to connect two paragraphs. Now, you know the next paragraph will be about whatever the hell I have been doing aside from updating my site)
Facebook Hell
I can describe the recent activity I have been doing to help myself as a writer as one that is menial and just freaking awful. As some of you may know, I made the stupid mistake of promoting too much of my Facebook page to spam accounts. I mean, promoting to way too many spam accounts. Well, now I have to get rid of the accounts, one account at a time. Yeah… I also learned that I need the Facebook page as a part of my writing portfolio since Instagram and Twitter/X don’t care all that much about long form written posts, which is my specialty.
The phrase I have been using is Facebook Hell, which I am sure there is someone out there who hates Facebook that will say I am being redundant, but that seems cruel.
Thinking About Hell
The amount of time I have been blocking people has been so taxing on my mind that I have found myself thinking about the very nature of hell, which speaks for my mental strain. I grew up ,like most, thinking that Hell is full of fire and Satan and a bunch of red demons ready to be tricksters and mean to anyone there. We all know Hell is bad, but is it really that bad? I mean, I have seen the Simpsons episode where Homer went to Hell, and it wasn’t that bad. He lived and was fine afterwards. So as much as I know about Hell, I treated it as a place for a time out, a really long time out, more than anything else. I then heard a pastor say that Hell is life without God, and I have been thinking about it in that context ever since.
What does life look like without goodness? What happens when the hero doesn’t show up to save the day? What happens when the bad guy gets away with it? Or worse, what happens when the monster that scares everyone doesn’t die? The thought is more terrifying than I originally wanted it to be. We seem to be in a world where no matter how bad it is, we justify the possible appearance of hope, which I get, and want to hear as well. We say that Hitler was evil, but he is dead. The monster in the movie is not real. It was just a movie. The bad people, like the real sickos, will get their due eventually. Even if they do not, we know that the goodness will attempt to win.
I guess that is what scares me more about Hell now than the fires I learned about as a kid. What if the bad in the world isn’t stopped? What happens then? Yeah… I know…. It is not the most comforting thought. But whatever that place is, whether it has fire or not, is what I think Hell is. Sure it would be helpful to know more about the place, but let’s be clear, I don’t want to take a tour of the place to learn about it either. I am fine just speculating about Hell.
The New Expectation for Creators
The other topic that goes through my mind as I am working my way out of Facebook Hell is the creation of a new writer, one I am not sure many realize is happening. First, let me tell you how I got there, and then I will relate it to writing.
I was listening to a few comedians on their podcast as I was cleaning up the page. For those that don’t know, comedians on podcast are not really like comedians on TV, or doing standup. They aren’t even always funny. They are just a few guys chilling around talking about something random that happened to them over the weekend. The relaxed nature of the podcast makes for easy listening since the viewer is not actively engaged in the conversation. For example, I was blocking accounts as I listened. I was not listening in and wondering about the conversation. That is the beauty of the podcast. But that is where the problem occurs.
See, the person you listen to on the podast, is not the same as the one you see at the comedy club. One is relaxing, just chilling, while the other is actively trying to make you laugh. The first listen has no pressure on the comedian, since you are already doing something else as they speak. The second one, the comedy club show, has pressure on the comedian since you are there to actively laugh.
That gets me to my point. It seems you can’t really be a professional today, if you are not well-liked. I don’t mean respected for your work, but liked in a way that you become a character in the eyes of the audience. Think about it, if a person has a bad attitude or is just a jerk, and podcasts or weekly appearances are important to being relative, then that person is in trouble, regardless of how talented they are.
Do You Have to Like the Writer?
I think of two writers for this: JK Rowling and Stephen King. I don’t know if I can tell you if they are even nice people or not. I can count on one hand how many times I have seen them in interviews. They just don’t do it that much, and never did. Even Rowling got in trouble for her political views, and that is a reflection for how we want to like our idols more than anything they actually believe in.
It brings up a question I have: Why do you have to like the writer? Says who? I honestly don’t know if I would get along with F. Scott Fitzgerald, or even like him, but does that make him any less of a writer.
I am learning that society is giving insights to who we are, even when we all feel like we are just acting as though we should or try our best to help. There are a lot of questions in this world, and you are answering them, and so am I, whether we want to or not.
Book Updates
Now to give you an update on my books, I got about half way done with the proofreading for Little Fires, my flash fiction book. I think my other short story book Everything Must Go is only in print form, since I had a problem putting it in digital form when I originally published. (I have to get to fixing that eventually)
Cry, Smile, and Laugh
And now for something that you can take with you: I once heard someone say that a great day is one where you cry, smile, and laugh. Maybe there is some truth to that. Learn what makes you cry, since that shows what makes your heart feel. Know what makes you smile, since those are the things you want to keep close to you. And learn what makes you laugh, since laughter shows the stress of life hasn’t gotten to you yet. Next time you do one of those things, keep note, since those are the actions that define what makes you go.
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