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Tag: flash fiction

  • Twitter Fiction Festival Selects Participants, Starts Tomorrow

    Twitter has just announced its official selections for the first ever Twitter Fiction Festival, the social media site’s foray into the world of experimental fiction. Earlier this month, they selected a panel of judges to review submissions which included authors, editors, press marking directors, and educators. That panel has selected 29 different fiction projects that will be showcased from November 28th to December 2nd. Twitter says that these projects span five continents and will come to you in five different languages,

    Here’s a selection of the selections:

    Author Jennifer Wilson (@travelinfamily) will invite Twitter users to help her write epigraphs for gravestones. Posting photographs of the existing stones, the community input will inspire short stories about each of the departed.
    Friday and Sunday at 12noon EST (17:00 GMT)

    “Censortive” is a story by a Chinese author that combines the words “censor” and “sensitive” and will explore the idea of permitted speech in the People’s Republic of China.
    Every night at 2am EST (7:00 GMT)

    The Gronsteins are a modern American family going through a tough time after Dad lost his job. In Ben Schrank’s (@BDSchrank) story, they share a Twitter account from which they chronicle life in their home.
    Wednesday through Saturday at 1pm EST (18:00 GMT)

    Writing in French, Fabrice Colin (@fabricecolin) will bring us the serialized story of five strangers trapped on a bus and sharing an incredible experience.
    Thursday to Sunday at 7am EST (12:00 GMT)

    Emmy Laybourne (@emmylaybourne) and Anna Banks (@byannabanks) will put a humorous spin on the paranormal young adult story with love affair between a teenage girl and a…Sasquatch.
    Wednesday through Sunday at 4pm EST (21:00 GMT)

    In a tense psychological thriller, Andrew Pyper (@andrewpyper) re-tells the classic Henry James ghost story “The Turn of the Screw” — set in a present-day White House. We will follow the Tweets of the new nanny, who is increasingly convinced something strange is afoot.
    Thursday through Sunday at 7pm EST (00:00 GMT)

    Good stuff. Head on over to the Twitter blog for the complete list of all 29 participants and the times.

    Of course, you can still participate even if you aren’t an official participant. Twitter suggests that you tell your experimental stories and include the #twitterfiction hashtag. The @TwitterBooks account will showcase some of the best user submissions, according to the company. So, if you have a way to utilize Twitter to make for interesting storytelling, keep at it.

    If you just want to follow along with everyone else’s fiction, Twitter has set up a dedicated event page for the festival.

  • Twitter to Hold Its Own Fiction Festival, a “Virtual Storytelling Celebration”

    Twitter has changed a lot of things when it comes to how the world receives information. It’s most definitely turned journalism on its head by making everyone an amateur reporter, and it’s also affected the way people communicate in real life – 140 characters is a hard constraint to shake off.

    But fiction? Could Twitter become a place for great storytelling?

    Twitter thinks so. And to prove that, they have just announced the Twitter Fiction Festival. That contest will kick off on November 28th and run for five days.

    “Tell us how you are going to explore content formats that already exist on Twitter — short story in Tweets, a Twitter chat, live-tweeting — or, even better, how you’ll create a new one. How will you work with our real-time global platform, where anyone can contribute to your story at any moment? The proposal must fit into the time window of our five day festival— but that means that a project could run for the length of the festival, or just for an hour,” says Twitter in a blog post.

    Twitter obviously has a pretty expansive view of what constitutes “fiction” as far this contest goes. Some people have already experimented with Twitter as a fiction medium. Take for instance author Jennifer Egan, who tweeted her story “Black Box” 140 characters at a time back in May.

    Or what about The Guardian’s #140novel challenge, which saw authors take a stab at a 140-character story.

    It’s not just flash fiction that Twitter’s after. They even point to @MayorEmanuel, a parody account, as an example of Twitter fiction.

    If you want to participate and you think you have a good idea, you can submit it here. Twitter will announce the participants of the festival on November 19th.

  • Rome Sweet Rome, A Story From A Reddit Thread, To Become Feature Film

    Rome Sweet Rome, A Story From A Reddit Thread, To Become Feature Film

    Who said internet comment threads are a waste of time? Apparently, if you’re creative enough, your musings can become the basis for a major motion picture.

    Warner Bros. has purchased the rights to “Rome Sweet Rome,” a story about U.S. Marines fighting in the time of ancient Rome. The concept was developed from a series of comments pulled from the /r/ AskReddit subreddit.

    About a month ago, a question appeared on the subreddit that read “Could I destroy the entire Roman Empire during the reign of Augustus if I traveled back in time with a modern U.S. Marine infantry battalion of MEU?” The AskReddit subreddit is a place on the site where users pose questions of all types to fellow Redditors, and discussion ensues.

    One user, Prufrock451 posted a comment that was quickly upvoted to the top. The comment was a 5-paragraph beginning of a story. Prufrock451 continued to post installations of his story – titled “Day 1, Day 2, Day 3 etc.” The story, an exercise in flash fiction, became wildly popular on Reddit.

    Here’s a snippet from Day 2:

    Meanwhile, the mysterious appearance of the Marines has not gone unnoticed. Peasants have fled to the home of the land’s owner, Senator Aulus Terentius Varro Murena. It is 23 BC, and Murena is about to form a Republican conspiracy against Augustus Caesar. He and other Senators are deeply suspicious of the Imperator and fear that he will swamp their ancient order with newly minted Senators from his swelling armies. The appearance of a small but apparently competent armed force – with a vast array of what appears to be bizarre siege machinery – on his land makes him fear the worst. He dispatches several spies to monitor the visitors and orders his retainers to avoid the camp. He also sends messengers to his co-conspirators in the Senate.

    Redditors posted their own tidbits to the story, made fan-art and even made trailer mashups for the hypothetical film. It eventually received its own subreddit at /r/RomeSweetRome.

    [Poster mockup by user stabyourface]

    And now it’s going to be a movie.

    Prufrock451 turns out to be James Erwin, a writer and former Jeopardy champion. According to Variety an exec from Madhouse Entertainment contacted Erwin when he saw “Rome Sweet Rome” gaining steam on Reddit. They began working to develop the concept and after it was completed they pitched it the Warner Bros. It looks like the pitch went well.

    Erwin tweeted about it this morning –

    @jlerwin
    James Erwin    So just to reiterate – dude, I sold a screenplay to Warner Brothers. 15 hours ago via web · powered by @socialditto

    @jlerwin
    James Erwin    @kn0thing Internet high-five! THWAP 4 hours ago via web · powered by @socialditto

    Flash fiction is a growing form of literature these days, but this is definitely a first for something like this. Will you line up to see the film? Let us know in the comments.