When you are perusing Twitter’s hellscape and are looking for a beacon of good to follow, it can be a demoralizing and challenging task. There is an abundance of opinions, advertisements, and memes, but actual good, content is few and far between. Follow these ten writers to help make Twitter worth trudging through all the shit:
Gabino Iglesias
@Gabino_Iglesias – A horror writer, societal commentator, and the book review editor at Pank Magazine. He is made up of equal parts of snark and guidance counselor while he tweets about the important, the silly, the dark, and the real. Love him or hate him, Gabino is going to be real with you. That authenticity flows out of him and into his writing and reviewing and, by extension, tweeting. Follow him because of the brilliance of Zero Saints and Coyote Songs, but stay because you want to be like him.
“Take your age, multiply it by two, divide it by four, add the duration of your favorite movie in minutes, and then multiply that number by zero. Now you have the amount of fucks you should give about what other people think of you.”
Josiah Bancroft
@BancroftJosiah – Josiah is the author of The Books of Babel trilogy. He is brilliant and in the face of the twitter hellscape, wholesome. A lot of what he talks about is the quirkiness of being a dad and writer, and I am here for it.
“You know what this section of my fantasy adventure really needs? A plot point about logarithms! And you know who had to take remedial math four times at university? This guy! D is for Diploma and also Dummy Dumb Dum Don’t Do Dis.”
Neil Gaiman
@neilhimself – Uber famous Neil is the author of American Gods, Sandman series, and with Terry Pratchett, he wrote Good Omens. And, aside from his writerly credentials, Neil does a lot of good. He is very connected with his fanbase and frequently chats with them on twitter and is hugely supportive of the writing community, which is saying a lot because he has 2.8 million followers.
“Morning has broken. But we’ve glued it back together again and are confident no one will notice.”
Stephen King
@StephenKing – King is arguably the greatest horror writer of the twentieth century. King is huge. Huge in personality, skill, stories, and opinions. Lately, much of King’s tweets have a political angle to them. But most of what I follow King for is the Bon Mots. King uses that razor-sharp wit and shanks the deserving with it. It is truly a masterful thing to behold. Plus, sometimes he tweets out funny takes on things like this tweet here:
“How about a movie where Mary Poppins turns out to be a serial killer? Think how exciting that would be. The umbrella could have, like, a machete inside.”
Joe Abercrombie
@LordGrimdark – If you are looking for some dark, snarky wit to help you get through your day, look no further than Lord Grimdark. Joe is the author of the Shattered Sea and the First Law books. If you are new to the dark fantasy genre, you will do well to check out his work.
“I often describe myself as the very god of humility.”
Rob J. Hayes
@RoboftheHayes – Rob is a fixture in the self-published fantasy world. His books have consistently finished in the semi-final round or higher in Mark Lawrence’s SPFBO. He also posts lists of upcoming self-published releases if you are looking to spice up your TBR with some self-published fantasy.
“The enforced time off continues. Splitting my time between saving feudal Japan from the Mongols, and finding out how Fi and Zeke will save all the world’s from the apocalypse.”
Mark Lawrence
@Mark__Lawrence – Mark Lawrence is one of the most famous Grimdark writers out there. His books are synonymous with dark fantasy and kick-ass characters. He is also a massive supporter of self-published fantasy and has run the Self Published Fantasy Blog-Off for the last six years. He is not one to quip; instead, his feed is a useful resource for learning about other authors as he is very supportive of the writing community.
“Cat butler. Also author of trilogies: The Broken Empire, The Red Queen’s War, The Book of the Ancestor, Impossible Times, & (in 2020) The Book of the Ice.”
R.F Kuang
@kuangrf– Rebecca does all sorts of cool giveaways and content. If you are a fan of her story, The Poppy War, or the follow up The Dragon Republic, you should follow her feed.
“my publisher: so u can basically put anything you want in the deleted scenes preorder incentive as long as it’s done by november me: ponderin whether to write all the most crucial scenes of Rin and Nezha’s relationship from Nezha’s perspective ponderin real hard”
Anna Smith Spark
@queenofgrimdark – Anna is the author of the Empire of Dust series. In a world full of peasants, Anna Smith Spark reigns as queen. Anna is a huge supporter of the writing community as well as influential world events.
“I love running and doing aerobics. Only happy times I’ve had during lockdown are when I’m doing hi-impact exercise and can’t think about anything. Also I think all the Batman films suck. Quick, they’d better revoke my diagnosis or something.”
Gareth Powell
@garethlpowell – I once tweeted that Gareth Powell was one of the shiny beacons of light on twitter. I don’t say that lightly. He is kind, smart, and wants to be a helper in the world of writing. He cheers his fellow writers, offers his advice, connects with his fans, and says almost daily, “what can I do for you?” With so much hate and discontent thrown around Twitter, Gareth tries to make it a slightly better place every day. I appreciate this as a writer, reader, and human being.
“We should never take books and literacy for granted. There is a reason dictators target intellectuals, smash presses, close libraries and burn books – because reading fosters empathy, understanding and freedom of thought. A well-read population is one that can think for itself.”
