TweeTales

[quin browne]

i blame peggy..

among other pieces of fiction, she has been writing nano-fiction on twitter for a bit of time now, and now, she has myself and thomg contributing every day.

it's simple... you write a piece of fiction in 140 characters. we are posting ours on twitter (i can't see much else use for twitter) and, i, personally, have been posting each day's tweetale here on ning as my status for the day.

if you decided to take part, why not put your twitter address in your comment, so i can follow your work...

[Michael Brown]

I have put a few of these 140 character things on picofiction. You can sort your own out of the complete list if you just want to keep track of the ones you've entered. I was wondering why your banner was changing so much.
picos I've written:
All the stories in the world are here in my pen. I only hope I don't run out of ink too soon after I start writing them.
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When I felt a spurt of writer's block coming on, I recalled my own approaching senility, and couldn't figure out how I was supposed to...
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Marred by past relationships, he took her on. She left him when he pointed out her only fault, but not before telling him his.

I find this format difficult to do and make interesting.

[quin browne]

nicely done, michael.

[Arthur Dubrul Daniels]

q ...........
A friend suggested I try twitter. I did. My only follower was my friend...... more often than not, I enjoy the challenge that limitations always bring (kinda like 6S or the surety of one's eventual death) ..... wow 140 characters! I gave it spin for a while it was pleasant but after a few postings, my interest suddenly dried up. I always stayed at exactly 140 characters. It was a heathy crash course in brevity and when I finally managed to whittle my "pieces" to 140 I always felt a short burst of satisfaction, but I realized I hadn't said anything real... from the writer in me... from my heart. So, I let my account at twitter die from idleness. Then I noticed that the "Tell us something interesting" on our personal pages here looked amazingly, suspiciously, like Twitter's question "What are you doing now?' the relative size and shape of the posting area; the placement (even color?) of the 140 counter were similar. So, I wrote one interesting fact in 140 exactly, but, later that day I felt that something was slightly out of whack. so, I sez to myself, I sez "What's going on here? Are we as a whole at 6S.ning unknowingly streaming? Are we contributing to Twitter's content without our consent or knowledge?" (luckily, I did not receive a response at that moment) Anyway I stopped (though I recently made up a a stupid little aphorism: "A stitch in time saves time, but an "s" in time makes needles needless" and stuck it in the box though I don't think anyone noticed. Oh, Well. ................ A.

[Michael Brown]

I noticed, Arthur, and thought it was clever, but I agree with you on not feeling a lasting satisfaction from attempting to tell a story in one or two sentences. Maybe it's that I don't do it so well, but I always think these things wind up sounding like a synopsis of something longer rather than being the thing itself. Now Peggy and Quin are having fun with it, and I have to say I've enjoyed reading their "piecelets" but Q, if you're looking in, I really, really enjoy when you let loose with six or more and allow the story to have its way with you, and us.

[Arthur Dubrul Daniels]

Michael ...... once again your admirable analytical ability amazes! The reprise of my "stitch in time" piece of nonsense was not me trawling for recognition. What you saw is what it is. My reply to Q. was nothing more than me shooting my mouth off when I'm tired when it would have been better of me to put the laptop down and pick up a book, but at the same time writing. You called it perfectly.....lack of satisfaction and the sense that your output is a synopsis of something bigger and better. I get more satisfaction from my letter writing which more than meets the "10 minutes a day" dictum which while being a "tip of the day" cliche, is still a good one that I try to follow...... which is a good one.. it keeps me on my fingers. Peggy and Quinn, as you said, are having fun with it. but that's the whole idea. My sixers are always better when I'm having fun. I guess I've been more than a bit grumpy lately. I tried to respond to Q.'s brief response but as soon as I clicked the green respond arrow, it turned into a yellow dot and I lost the reply field.... So, Quin if you are as Michael calls it looking in, I got your message about my needless needles. Thanks. My response to yours might have read very similar to this one to Michael.

[Ann Mintz]

How about non-fiction in 140 characters? I pretty much only write flash non-fiction.

[Michael Brown]

You should do it, Ann. Try it out on picofiction. It's like writing six sentences, but without numbers 2,3,4, and 5 in evidence. Your nanofictions will probably read like extended headlines to articles, but consider it as practice for setting up longer pieces here or elsewhere.

[Christian Bell]

I might give this a try since it fits in (sort of) with some current work I'm doing. I posted one at Picofiction yesterday (thanks for that link, Michael).

I don't know the longevity of my interest in such a thing but it can be fun for awhile and may open up some new possibilities.

Twitter: @christianbell37

[peggy]

Just stumble upon this thread, as it is linked to the main site.

Okay, my goal someday is to write a story in all it's forms: as a tweet, expand to 6 sentences, bring it up to a flash (meaning 500 or 1000 words) then blowing it up all the way, whether that means a short in the 1K to 7500 range, or even bigger.

Since doing the twitter, I've had stories that in my head were bigger, but since i gave myself this challenge, I condense and condense until it makes a tweet. I've also written a 'tweetale' (as quin fondly calls these) that started that small, but liked the idea enough to expand---several of my recent sixes originated as tweetales.

As Mike and Arthur said, as long as it's fun. For me, it's been almost three months of writing a daily tweetale, and I look forward to it. It's my mental exercise to start my day.