What a great exercise in telling a story and setting a mood, in a tight framework too! I’m talking about the Copyblogger’s Twitter Writing Contest. The goal: Write a story in exactly 140 characters (the length of a post on Twitter, aka a tweet). Not more, not less; exactly.

The contest is over now, after collecting 300 entries. The winner: Ron Gould, with:

“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.

I also liked the sample Copyblogger’s Brian Clark posted:

Three flies are bugging me on the deck. I kill two, and spare the third. “Go tell the others this is what happens,” I warn as he buzzes off.

Speechwriter Jean Gogolin is continuing the fun, asking for suggestions in her June e-newsletter. Her own sample:

On Friday, she put the children to bed and poisoned their father; then dragged him to a new grave in the woods. On Sunday, she took the children to Mass, smiling serenely.

My own attempt:

She seldom hitchhiked, but on this day she did. The car stopped and the driver said get in; she did. Later, she would wonder if it was fate.

Why not give it a try? And do share your 140-character story with me or with Jean!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 11th, 2008 at 1:50 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.