Join Plympton’s brainstorm for the #twitterfiction festival.

Plympton will be taking part, somehow, in the Twitter Fiction Festival (11/28-12/2). As we’ve mentioned before. Anyone can apply: published, not published, self-published.

They really want to push Twitter as a creative platform for storytelling. What does that mean? Well we are just beginning to brainstorm. If you want to join in, sign up below for our twitterfiction[at]plympton.com discussion email list, or jump in on our Google doc.

Need inspiration? A great example discussed was Pulitzer Prize-winner Jennifer Egan’s short story Black Box, which was published both on Twitter and in the magazine this past May. As Deborah Treisman, fiction editor of The New Yorker, explained at the #twitterfiction NYPL event: Egan spent over a year on it, with an intent to be published on Twitter, even though she was not herself a Twitter user. The  8,500 word story was parceled out between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m.  for 10 days. It was an example of “tune in” fiction.”

Another great example of narrative fiction on Twitter is Arjun Baju, winner of the Shorty Award, who tells terse narratives in exactly 140 characters.

Last, similar to Baju, The Guardian recently asked novelists to write a complete story in 140 characters (in the spirit of Ernest Hemingway, and”Six Word Memoirs“?). Some of our favorites:

James Meek: He said he was leaving her. “But I love you,” she said. “I know,” he said. “Thanks. It’s what gave me the strength to love somebody else.”

 

Helen Fielding: OK. Should not have logged on to your email but suggest if going on marriedaffair.com don’t use our children’s names as password.