Twitter Fiction

1 - I can do better 2 - Jury's out 3 - Pretty darn good 4 - Splendiferous 5 - Awesometastic by 5 people | Log in to rate

Ranked #756 in Books, #59,646 overall

Introduction

Twitter is a rapidly growing social networking platform that allows members to send messages of 140 characters or less to other members who subscribe to, or "follow," their updates. Twitter asks the question, "What are you doing?" but many Twitter users go far beyond the mundane, using the platform in creative ways.

A number of writers have started experimenting with using the Twitter platform for "publishing" fiction. Twitter fiction takes many forms, from microfiction, in which an entire story is told in 140 characters or less, to longer fiction delivered in Twitter-sized blocks of 140 characters.

Styles of Twitter Fiction 

  • Microfiction: An entire story told in one tweet of 140 characters or less
  • Twitterized: A longer story posted using multiple tweets
  • Character Tweeting: A story told in first person as if the characters are sending the Tweets. Sometimes multiple twitter accounts can be used for multiple characters
  • Links to longer content: Instead of providing the story directly in the Tweets, longer chunks of content are posted elsewhere and linked to in the Tweets

Tips for Reading Twitter Fiction 

Some of the longer Twitter stories can be difficult to follow, when short blocks of story are mixed in with all the other Tweets. Here's some tips to help you get the most out of reading Twitter fiction.

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Use Twitter Search

For fiction that uses a hashtag, you can search for the hashtag at http://search.twitter.com to view only the story.1 point

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TweetDeck

I like the software TweetDeck ( http://www.tweetdeck.com/ ) for managing my Twitter account. In TweetDeck, you can set up separate columns for different groups of Tweets. You can set up a search column for the stories that have hashtags. For those without hashtags, set up a group column including only the twitter account (or accounts, if more than one) that the story is being tweeted from.0 points

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Nambu

Nambu is a Mac Twitter client that, like TweetDeck, lets you set up groups to monitor specific people, or searches to monitor specific hashtags.0 points

Tips for Writing Twitter Fiction 

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Use a hashtag

Create and use a unique hashtag so that people can follow it on Twitter search or in software that can filter by hashtags.1 point

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Archive it

As your twitter story grows, it's hard for people to join in the middle. To catch up, they'd have to read the tweets backwards on the Twitter site. Create an archive of the posts as you post them, and periodically tweet links to the archive for new people.0 points

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Don't protect your updates

If you protect your updates, many people won't bother to subscribe. Also, protected updates don't show up on the web, so people can't read it. And if you're posting Twitter fiction, don't you want people to read it?0 points

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Schedule your tweets - sometimes

You can use TweetLater ( http://www.tweetlater.com ) or HootSuite ( http://hootsuite.com ) to schedule tweets in advance, so that the story can continue when you can't be on. But I don't recommend doing it all the time, because you lose the spontaneity and personal connection of tweeting personally.0 points

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Respond to comments

Check your replies and DMs and respond to people who comment on the story or send you messages about it. Keep in mind that Twitter is all about connecting! If you use it strictly as a broadcast mechanism, you're missing the point.0 points

Related Links 

Seriously short stories
Article about Twitter fiction written by Philip Moscovitch for the Globe and Mail.
Dispatch from the Twitter Lit Frontier
GalleyCat post on R.N. Morris' thoughts about Twitterizing his book A Gentle Axe.
TwitterFiction Twibe
Twitter group for Twitter Fiction writers.
26 Places for Fiction on Twitter (and Some Related Sites)
Another Twitter Fiction list, on the "Grasping for the Wind" blog. John has some on his list that I don't have here, so it's worth checking out.

Twitter Fiction Directory 

Below this is a directory of fiction on Twitter, of all types. For each author or e-zine, I've included the twitter id, style or styles, hashtag (if any), and archive link (if any). You can also see a sample of the latest tweets. If the writer is also published in print, I've included links to his or her books on Amazon.com.

Clare Bell - Ratha's Island 

Clare Bell, author of the Named series, is Tweeting a new, original novelette in the series. The novelette is called Ratha's Island. Clare posts the novelette in groups of 6-10 tweets, usually twice per day.

Thaumatrope 

Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror fiction ezine. Publishes both microfiction and longer, ongoing stories.

Kathleen Duey - Russet 

Ongoing first person story told by Russet, who is on the run with a mysterious letter left him by his father, who disappeared when Russet was 8.

R. N. Morris - A Gentle Axe 

R.N. Morris is Twitterising his published book, A Gentle Axe, a crime novel featuring Porfiry Petrovich, the detective from Crime and Punishment.
  • Follow on Twitter: @rnmorris
  • Hashtag: none
  • Style: Twitterized

A Gentle Axe on Amazon.com 

The Gentle Axe
The Gentle Axe

Tim Letteney - Spore Story 

Ongoing Twitterized story about Walter Caligari, a law office worker, who drinks tea made with a suspicious and strangely infected teabag.
  • Follow on Twitter: @spore_story
  • Hashtag: None
  • Style: Twitterized

Arjun Basu - Twisters 

Arjun Basu posts single-tweet stories he calls Twisters.
  • Follow on Twitter: @arjunbasu
  • Hashtag: None
  • Style: Microfiction

Arjun Basu Books 

Squishy (Punchy Prose)
Squishy (Punchy Prose)

Midnightstories - Twiction Microfiction 

Midnight Stories posts a new microfiction story daily at 12 am.

Kevin Thom (Microprose) 

Kevin Thom is a photographer that posts microfiction "in the style of my photography." Also check out his amazing photography.
  • Follow on Twitter: @microprose
  • Hashtag: none
  • Style: Microfiction

Nanoism 

Nanoism is a new, paying ezine for microfiction. Currently open for submissions.

MythMashed 

MythMashed is a mythology/fantasy themed story being told one tweet at a time. Visit the web link to quickly catch up with previous chapters.

Motke Dapp 

Motke Dapp is a magical being, a novel-writer, one who paints like many frost cakes, a 140 character story teller, and a jalapeno hummus lover.
  • Follow on Twitter: @motkedapp
  • Style: Microfiction
  • Hashtag: None

Tweet the Meat 

Twitter Horrorzine. Fear in 140 characters or less.

Very Short Story 

Twitter sized fiction for your entertainment. Written by @sean_hill. Feedback welcomed. Join the fun, write a story and tag it with #vss

Tale of Gaven Morren 

Follow the adventures of Gaven Morren, a luckless thief as he tries to escape Miir, the City of Shadows. An ongoing Tweetnovel on Twitter.

Tweet Mystery of Death 

Our crack(ed) team of authors have each developed a character for a Twitter-based drama we're calling Tweet Mystery of Death. Starting on June 15, 2009, these characters will tweet about their lives, loves, and secrets galore! Readers will be able to interact with the characters on Twitter as the story unfolds, and with each other on this Reader Community. We hope to create a compelling story with interesting characters and a challenging mystery, in chunks of 140 characters or less.
  • Follow on Twitter: @Tweet_Mystery / Also follow individual characters. Each character has his or her own Twitter account.
  • Hashtag: #tmod
  • Style: Character tweeting
  • Main web site

This is a Wikipedia module. 

More information about Twitter for those unfamiliar with the service.

Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author's profile page and delivered to the author's subscribers who are known as followers. Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow open access. Users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter website, Short Message Service (SMS) or external applications. While the service itself costs nothing to use, accessing it through SMS may incur phone service provider fees.

The 140-character limit on message length was initially set for compatibility with SMS messaging, and has brought to the web the kind of shorthand notation and slang commonly used in SMS messages. The 140 character limit has also spurred the usage of URL shortening services such as tinyurl, bit.ly and tr.im, and content hosting services, such as Twitpic and NotePub to accommodate multimedia content and text longer than 140 characters.

Since its creation in 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Twitter has gained notability and popularity worldwide. It is sometimes described as the "SMS of the Internet" since the use of Twitter's application programming interface for sending and receiving short text messages by other applications often eclipses the direct use of Twitter.

Twitter emphasized their news and information network strategy in November 2009 by changing the question it asks users for status updates from "What are you doing?" to "What's happening?".http://blogs.ft.com/techblog/2009/11/whats-happening-a-lot-says-twitter-coo/http://blog.twitter.com/2009/11/whats-happening.html Twitter is ranked as one of the 50 most popular websites worldwide by Alexa's web traffic analysis. Although estimates of the number of daily users vary because the company does not release the number of active accounts, a February 2009 Compete.com blog entry ranked Twitter as the third most used social network based on their count of 6 million unique monthly visitors and 55 million monthly visits. In March 2009, a Nielsen.com blog ranked Twitter as the fastest-growing site in the Member Communities category for February 2009. Twitter had a monthly growth of 1,382 percent, Zimbio of 240 percent, followed by Facebook with an increase of 228 percent. However, only 40 percent of Twitter's users are retained.

read the rest of the Wikipedia article

Reader Feedback 

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  • Reply
    dave4dave dave4dave Nov 14, 2009 @ 3:24 pm
    The best twitter fiction experiment I have seen is Inepd International. There are a few staff of a spoof charity @InepdMercedes @InepdKelvin and @InepdShirley and they tweet about events that are happening. The fiction is linked to a website called http://www.inepd.org The Inepd International events usually last for 30-40 minutes. Good fun if you get a chance.
  • Reply
    WombatSam WombatSam Sep 6, 2009 @ 8:39 am
    Hi, I've got a Twitter feed called Genre Stories. A new story in a different genre each day: www.twitter.com/genrestories
    And thank you for this fantastic lens!

    Sam.
  • Reply
    JanOda JanOda Jul 23, 2009 @ 8:00 am
    Great lens. I really like @smallstories myself. A different kind of twitter-fiction are people like @lordlikely, @flawnt and @Wendell_Howell; who are tweeting as fictional characters and always staying in character. Often they have a blogged version of the adventures they are tweeting about.

    Last but not least, if you are interested in online and free fiction, @onlinefiction is the person to follow on twitter, as she offers daily tweets to free fiction in numerous genres, formats and types.

    I've added your lens to the lensroll of my squidoo page on Web-Fiction, because it is obviously highly related.
    Thanks for the interesting links and read!!
  • Reply
    Tim Tim May 15, 2009 @ 3:21 pm
    I have no idea how I am going to include hashtags in my story without ruining the tone. Any suggestions? Thanks for mentioning me by the bye.

    #spore_story.

    :)
  • Reply
    xmashed xmashed Apr 27, 2009 @ 10:01 pm
    There is a new fantasy themed twitter novel coming out at www.twitter.com/mythmashed

    The Prologue is out now and chapter 1 starts on May 4th.

    You can find more info at http://xmashed.wordpress.com/

    I hope you can add mythmashed to your list of twitter fiction.
  • Reply
    x3xsolxdierx3x x3xsolxdierx3x Apr 26, 2009 @ 5:31 am
    You did a very nice job with this lens, Sheila! 5 stars :)
  • Reply
    SheilaRuth SheilaRuth Mar 26, 2009 @ 10:41 am
    Thanks! Your lens was an inspiration to me.
  • Reply
    twelfthhouse twelfthhouse Mar 26, 2009 @ 9:58 am
    Great lens! I've added it to "explore related pages" on my lens.
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by SheilaRuth

YA fantasy and science fiction blogger, publisher, and forum adminstrator. I blog about children's and young adult SF/F at Wands and Worlds, publish i... (more)

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