Twitter gives authors a means to share micro-fiction constrained by the 140-character limit, an exercise in conciseness. Fiction across Twitter appears as poetry, serials, and single micro-fiction tales including a few six-word stories. Tweet the Meat offers a dollar—generous considering the word count—for publishing horror micro-fiction.
My goal is to tweet a few micro-fiction stories each week. They mix with other posts, so here are a few of my attempts including two of exactly 140 characters:
“Gliding on toes, she danced along the path. A werewolf crept, waited. He asked about her day. Smiling, she offered wine and went on her way.” Posted June 10th, 2009.
“Night wore a dress of darkness gliding over the land. Ushering Sleep and Death, she chased after Dusk, shadow in hand. ” Posted June 18th, 2009.
“As Luna met Sol for midday tea, Dawn hugged Dusk in the shadow-night. The tea too brief, Dawn found her arms empty on the far side of Night. ” Posted June 19th, 2009.
For other micro-fiction, see the following authors: @arjunbasu, @twae sometimes incorporates physics, @midnightstories posts precisely at midnight central time, @trapphic has a web page on micro-fiction, @mythmashed tells a story one tweet at a time, and @VeryShortStory.
Publishers: @tweetthemeat, @Nanoism, @Outshine, and @thaumatrope.
Many more authors reside on Twitter. Find others by checking out following and favorite lists of those listed above. Some mix stories with other posts, but several have a dedicated feed for stories.
Try a 140-character story in the comments or tweet.
View David Shrock's profile
Nice post. It’s interesting: at the beginning of the year, I was able to read every twitter-story by every account I could find. I’m sure there were others out there, but they were difficult to locate, and I really believe there were only a handful. Now, it’s impossible. The movementu2014or at least the hobbyu2014is accessible enough that there are dozens of regular writers and hundreds of occasional posters. And there are more every day. rnrnAs a writer, it’s a useful and engaging tool. It does good things to distill ideas down to their very essence, to write all of the interesting ideas down in a productive way instead of scribbling them in a notebook or forgetting them altogether. Keep at it.
Thanks, Ben. Once I feel I’ve obtained some mastery over Twitter stories, I’m interested to see how the experience carries over into my other writtng.
Nice post. It's interesting: at the beginning of the year, I was able to read every twitter-story by every account I could find. I'm sure there were others out there, but they were difficult to locate, and I really believe there were only a handful. Now, it's impossible. The movement—or at least the hobby—is accessible enough that there are dozens of regular writers and hundreds of occasional posters. And there are more every day.
As a writer, it's a useful and engaging tool. It does good things to distill ideas down to their very essence, to write all of the interesting ideas down in a productive way instead of scribbling them in a notebook or forgetting them altogether. Keep at it.
Thanks, Ben. Once I feel I've obtained some mastery over Twitter stories, I'm interested to see how the experience carries over into my other writtng.