Week 1 of #twiction by @JennStories

2016 October 8-16

• What would it take to soar, to see more than the shores of the world? To see mountains and peaks rather than anchors deep?
• Ruby slippers, Moulin Rouge scarlet lady, rosa American Beauty, and crimson tension. Film's red herrings are the cherry on top.
• The Bride scooped pebbles instead of birdseed from her cleavage. Staring at her hand the Groom said, Let me help with that.
• The Mad Scientist's only friend watched in awe as his who-know-how-many-th experiment transported all the friends who left back.
• Kids room empty, bed unmade, toys scattered down the hall of silent picture frames. The scent of alcohol soaked the CPS order.
• He chewed his cheek to keep from smiling and be accused of smirking while watching her pace, violently cleaning as she spewed. 
• He cheered, fingers hooked in the fence behind homeplate as James crossed and came behind to pick up his crutches. 
• Mom, what are we going to do? The news broadcast forebodingly blared. Honey, we help. Humanity at its best is selfless.
• OMG!...You permed your hair...Poodle head!...Poo head! - Laughter echoed off metal lockers and tiled walls.
• Mr. Itoldyouso raged from his side of the fence, gesturing at his damaged roof as the Treehugger family planted a memorial acorn.
• They are not pets and toys, you know. Max needs to learn that lions and rockets are real and dangerous. Santa won't bring them.
• The protester warning of the hospital's chronic staph infections tripped in front of the ER and was rushed inside for treatment.
• The nubile piano prodigy blushed and under lash flirted; praise gushed from peers while the past prime critic adored from afar.
• Instead of electric blue, her hair was nuclear green. Her pale scalp was divided forehead to nape. Never trust a student stylist.
• Folklore cities changed by cold iron & steel. Creature intuities caged and heel. Urban mythologies revealed as relevant & real.
• 24 hour stomach virus. Easiest not-really-ill, need a sick day excuse for missing the deadline Ms. Type A forgot, with sympathy.
• Spitfire bangs punctuated the air like angry exclamation points. Emerging, I saw my welcome committee in the sign's sunlit holes. 
• Old people chit-chat, playing chess with thin air. RNs shake their head and say, There-there. Ghosts sneer unseen.

Prompts are from @DailyPrompt on Twitter. My responses are @JennStories on Twitter.

Twitterature... Twiction...

Curbside Message, Sacramento, CA

Have you heard of these terms before, because I hadn't until yesterday. Twitterature or twitter literature. Twiction/TwitFic or twitter fiction.

Is it possible to tell a story in 140 characters or less? 140 characters! That's not a word limit, it's a character limit which averages out to be about 12 words. The average English sentence is 16 words or 160 characters. How is a story told in 140 characters?

"How to Tweet Like a Pro in 140 Characters - Or Less" talks a bit about this. The author states that writing tweets actually makes people a better writer because "every sentence is a complete idea with a minimum of fluff and needless words."

There are several tricks to conserving characters when writing twitter literature or twitter fiction.

1. Use contractions freely. 
2. Try to avoid "and" "or" "but" as well as other conjunctions.
3. Drop pronouns, especially "that"
4. Stop using the "I" it makes the sentences more declarative. 
5. Use numbers, don't spell them out.
6. Don't double space between words.
7. Drop the very last period.
8. Use hashtag #twiction because it's shorter than #twitterature

Another tutorial for writing Twiction was found on this Teen Twiction website. Sometimes a twitter story is summed up in one tweet. For example, Ernest Hemingway once said that his best story was written in just six words: "For sale: baby shoes, never worn."

Some authors connect tweets together to formulate their story. In this case, the story is more of a micro-fiction series.

So why am I talking about Twiction? Because I'm venturing into the twitterverse as @JennStories where I'll be attempting to write twiction. I figure like anything else, it's going to take practice and I might as well start now.