Writing short stories on Twitter raises a number of initial questions so here is a brief list of lessons learned so far:
- Writing in 140 characters: One of the most demanding early questions is whether you should post stories of exactly 140 characters or write stories of 140 characters or less. This has a big practical impact on the process as if you decide on the former you often find yourself writing to conform to the strict format instead of letting the creative process drive the length. It really is the difference between writing free-form poetry and iambic pentameter or haikus. Twister short story maestro Arjun Basu takes the exactly 140 character approach and dismissed it as an issue in a recent direct message exchange - "140 characters. That's the only rule." But for me deciding a direction on this has been one of the biggest challenges of the form. I have experimented with both and am inclined to think that restricting yourself to exactly 140 is actually pretty arbitrary given there is no history of the form and the software doesn't impose this limitation. To each his/her own.
- Twitter is a rolling real-time format and this contrasts greatly with the typical editing process. This suits the conversational nature of the form very well but presents different challenges to a fiction writer. When you tweet a twister (will soon grow tired of all the alliteration in this social network, but not yet) it enters the public domain and remains in its original form unless you delete and repost. But if you do that all your followers see the same post come up twice and are privy to your editing process. Best idea is to craft your tweet in a text editor and paste it in to post when it is ready to go.
- Is fine to base some of your stories on real-life experiences but in general keep your short stories fictional. It can create a lot of confusion for your followers (especially if some are old friends or family) if you mix and match real-life with fiction. But it might makes things more interesting!
- Connecting with other writers in the format is a useful experience as it helps you shape your own posts and gives you an idea of alternate styles. On Twae I mostly follow those engaged with the medium and format and for the most part that makes my feed a rolling list of short stories. Other Twitter fiction writers that may interest you include: arjunbasu, instantfiction, nanoism, tweettales, astoryin140 and microprose. For something a little different try maureen (haikus).
Labels: fiction, short_stories, twister, twitter
