It doesn’t take a lot of words to tell a creepy, compelling tale.
Short fiction writers know this, and they’ve been using Twitter as a medium for their brief–but-–powerful stories for years. Twitter’s recently embraced this – even holding its own fiction festivals.
R.L. Stine, master of scaring the living shit our of children, has used Twitter to tell stories before. He’s just done it again, and it’s pretty fun. Stine’s 14-tweet story shows just how much a writer can accomplish in a couple thousand characters.
I am going to try to write a story live on Twitter now. The story is called "What's In My Sandwich?"…
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) October 29, 2014
And here’s the story:
People call me a loser, but that's going to change. I was in a little diner downtown and I ordered an egg salad sandwich…
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) October 29, 2014
..I was about to bite down on it when I noticed something moving in the egg salad. Was I imagining it? No…
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) October 29, 2014
..I saw a hairy, three-fingered claw push a clump of egg out of the way. I saw two round black eyes. A fur-covered face…
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) October 29, 2014
..The creature poked out of the sandwich, sending egg salad tumbling onto the plate. It was the size of a fat beetle…
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) October 29, 2014
..But it wasn't an insect. It had a furry head and eyes that peered into mine. Before I could react, a second creature poked out…
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) October 29, 2014
..And then a third. My sandwich was infested. My stomach lurched. "Is everything okay?" the waitress asked…
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) October 29, 2014
.."Yes. Fine," I said. "Could you wrap this sandwich to go?" Finding hairy things in your sandwich is gross…
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) October 29, 2014
..But I knew this sandwich would make me a winner. The sandwich would turn my life around…
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) October 29, 2014
..Discovering a new life form had to make me rich. I carried the sandwich home carefully and set it on a table…
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) October 29, 2014
..I didn't hear my son Willy come home. When I finally saw him, he had egg salad on his face…
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) October 29, 2014
..Yes, he ate the sandwich. If only I could have stopped him. Now the creatures are biting holes in his stomach…
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) October 29, 2014
..They are biting holes in Willy from the inside, poking their furry heads out of his stomach, chewing his flesh…
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) October 29, 2014
..Okay. A minor setback. But I'm not giving up. Willy is screaming in agony. The poor guy is terrified…
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) October 29, 2014
..I'm so excited. Where is my camera? Willy is going to make me rich. ##
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) October 29, 2014
Happy Halloween!
Image via wandersick, Flickr Creative Commons, via CNN