A year and 140 characters late.
As I read my Twitter feed this morning I thought Twitter would be a great forum for a short, short, short story contest. Can you tell a compelling story in 140 characters? A quick google of “Twitter Short Story” and of course it had already been done. Copyblogger posted the first as, “Can you tell a story in exactly 140 characters?”. The rules were simple - tweet it and it HAD to be 140 characters, no less. The winner received and iPod and $100.00 at the iTunes store - how cool is that.
The best shortest story I can think of was something I read on postsecret:
“The only man I have ever loved was a guest at my wedding”
Twitter user Arjun Basu has written more than 500 twitter short stories on his twitter feed.
Here’s my first attempt:
https://twitter.com/jason1044/status/1490584315
Ilira suggested: “For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn” a six word short story by Ernest Hemingway which contains a three-part story arc: exposition, development, conclusion.
Here’s a great one from Joss Whedon:
“Gown removed carelessly. Head, less so.”
Here are the winners in the Copyblogger contest:
First Place
“Time travel works!” the note read. “However you can only travel to the past and one-way.” I recognized my own handwriting and felt a chill.
Second Place
Tony was a snitch, so I wasn’t surprised when his torso turned up in the river. What did surprise me, though, was where they found his head.
Third Place
When Gibson hit that homerun in the fall of eighty-eight, my old man had never been so happy. He hugged me for the first time. I was eleven.
First Honorable Mention
Happily sobbing she held the boy, her memory of his violent conception falling away. She had learned to love him, this would be her revenge.
Second Honorable Mention
The priest at the funeral home asked if she had been a loving mother. The children all stared at each other. The silence spoke volumes.
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