Twitter Fiction

## Introduction

   It’s the role of literature to play with forms… It’s a slightly different art form and it creates a different experience of fiction.  Twitter fiction is when a Twitter user tweets different segments of a story they are orchestrating within the 140-character limit.  This unique way of telling a story is referred to as a “work-in-progress on Twitter."  Twitter accounts are free to users, so the author doesn't have to pay publishing fees to get his work out to the world. Twitter Fiction is easily accessible, it is able to be written and retweeted from both mobile devices and computers.

Individuals can follow their favorite authors, and increase the writer's publicity and esteem. Following allows this authors tweets show up on user's Twitter Feed. Users can see their Feed whenever they check the app. There is evidence that the reasons why authors are using Twitter as a media outlet is because of pressure from publishers. Twitter makes it easier for the author to get free publicity, the reader can simply retweet the story and have it on the page for all their followers to see. This means the story can be passed along at an exponential rate. This momentum can aid authors in later book sales.

### Festivals and Popular Culture

Twitter Fiction is taking the twittisphere by storm. It has gotten so popular there is a Twitter Fiction Festival. It's a five day event where people can create stories in chunks 140 characters long. The first ever festival was in 2012, people from all around the world came together to compose their own make believe stories. In 2015, was the third festival it lasted from May 11-15. To join the festival, Twitter users use the tag #twitterfiction for a chance to be presented on the authors showcase.

## Group Members

Christian Barnes

Anthony Storto

Derrick Whisenant

John Sayyae

Katie Haefner

## *Jeffery the Housefly* (Christian Barnes)

Most people think that social media is just an avenue for sharing information, connecting with others, and a way to waste time.  However, I imagine that not very many people think of social media as a way to write stories.  This, interestingly enough, has become quite the sensation and a method utilizing Twitter is now called *Twitter Fiction.*  Phillip Pullman, author of *Jeffery the Housefly,* took part in *Twitter Fiction* by taking the 140-character limit and tweeting a piece of the story, one by one. Through *Twitter Fiction* and *Jeffery the Housefly,* a different type of literature becomes evident in the plot of the story, literature is engaged by audiences in a different way, and literature receives a different meaning.  This piece is one of many in the realm of *Twitter Fiction* and electronic literature that reveal how many ways a piece of literature can be experienced.

A different type of literature becomes evident in the plot of the story through *Jeffery the Housefly.* The plot consists of a common housefly, Jeffery, who was able to take part in many adventures inside the author’s home.  Jeffery soon develops a love interest with Polka, a sleeping ladybug found on the kitchen window.  However, just days after their initial meeting, Jeffery, apparently, died.  The twitter audience became shocked by this, and soon after the assumed death, Jeffery made a surprising return to world of the living.  In fact, it was a false alarm.  The housefly had just flown outside to taste a piece of dung.  He becomes addicted to this substance, which becomes a reoccurring struggle.  Jeffery goes on many other journeys and finds himself as a spy agent, probing deeper into the heart of the underground dung trade.  Though this sounds like your average story, the way the readers first experienced it was completely different than reading it from a book.  The readers had to wait for each tweet that Pullman sent out to continue reading the story.  This method of electronic literature gave the audience a sense of suspension and apprehension.  The way the readers experience *Jeffery the Housefly* is so different because of how the writing is introduced, which causes this different type of literature to be so evident and allows the audience to engage the reading in such a unique way. There are also some underlying themes in the plot, especially when the author makes a nod to drug-use. Here, is where one can see Pullman bringing *Jeffery the Housefly* into the real world and relating it to modern day issues. This is especially important because it allows the story to be more relatable to its audience. In addition to a new manifestation of literature by specific plot points, the meaning of literature is also something different that is found.

It is because of the way *Jeffery the Housefly* is introduced and how the readers engage it that allow literature to gain a whole new meaning.  Olivia Goldhill states in her article that “every literary medium has some kind of constraint, and Twitter is simply the latest restriction.  It’s the role of literature to play with forms…In poetry you

have very rigid forms, and people have to operate within those constraints. With Twitter fiction, people are taking the limitation of 140 characters and doing something creative. It’s a slightly different art form and it creates a different experience of fiction."  Through this quote, one can see that because of the constraints Twitter has, the ability for the meaning of literature to change becomes possible.  Literature moves from ink on a paper to a tweet on a social media site; this transition has taken time, but nonetheless, it is a huge movement for the world of literature that gets more creative everyday.

As one can see, the way that literature has moved from paper to online media has had a significant impact on the meaning of literature and the reader’s experience.  Through the *Twitter Fiction* example of *Jeffery the Housefly,* the evidence for the evolution of literature is so extensive and will continue to further develop as our technology continues to advance.

## *Twitter Fiction Story* (Derrick Whisenant)

Elliott Holts "Twitter Fiction Story", is a great example of how #twitterfiction works. It is a really different form than what you are used to for many reasons, one of which only having 140 characters to type at one time. You can obviously tweet more than once about the same thing but not all on one tweet. In his story, he is trying to decide whether this lady committed suicide, was it a homicide, or was it an accident? There were 3 main peoples tweets he used that were at the party when this happened. They all described a red haired lady early on in their tweets. But, none of which said they really knew who the lady was or much about her. They all had the same story though, she was either very drunk or was on drugs. They all say she got into a small fight with a man on the dance floor but couldn't decide whether it was a fight or they were just dancing roughly with each other. At one time one lady tweeted that she went to the bathroom and this "red haired woman", who was dancing was crying in the mirror and was very upset about something. They were on the top floor of a building in New York City, with a big balcony on the side of the room. The suspicious part of all this is, a few tweets said things like, "You can't plan everything." or "This is one of those nights when I feel like anything could happen." That makes you start to wonder if they knew that this was going to happen or if that was just by chance because the party was getting wild. As the night continues she keeps dancing and one of the witnesses that was tweeting told the bartender to stop serving her. You can then tell that they are getting aggravated with this "Red Haired Woman" because they have to take care of her. Finally, at around 9:15pm, a tweet was sent out that said "She went off the roof. We heard her hit the pavement. She's dead I just heard someone die she's dead." That is all that is said. Now it is up to the reader to decide. Did she do this by herself as an act of suicide or did someone push her off? In my opinion, she did this herself, she was crying in the bathroom saying "its over", like her boyfriend or someone broke up with her maybe. The only thing that makes you wonder is, the tweets that were said about "anything can happen" and so on. This story is really intriguing even though you have no connection with anyone in it. This is a great example of twitter fiction, I really enjoy reading things like this and I think that is why Twitter Fiction has really taken off here lately. It is not hard to read or understand like some of the other forms. Now it is up for you to decide.

## The Right Sort (John Sayyae)

David Mitchell's "The Right Sort", is a wonderful story about a kid that goes with his mother to a lords house for a

soiree. This story was slowly released on twitter over the span of six days. The Right Sort is a great example of the new way to tell stories call Twitter Fiction. #twitterfiction is taking social media by storm and won't be dying off anytime soon. The Right Sort was published in a series of more than two hundred and eighty tweets in the course of a week. Every part of that David released has to be 140-charterers or less to follow the format of twitter. If we want to continue you with his story he has to start a new tweet. This is the best part about the Twitter Fiction craze, the story is slowly released overs time with can keep people coming back for more since most every part of the story ends up being a cliffhanger until it is completely released.

Reading a story on Twitter has different pros and cons for example a pro is that if you follow the author his story will just show in your Twitter feed so you can read it while checking everything else. However, I find this as a con as well. Reading on Twitter can be distracting and not as enjoyable, because of these distractions. Being on Twitter leave the opportunity to be noticed a lot easier. If someone enjoys the story they can follow the author to receive more Tweets by them and if they really enjoy it they can retweet their tweets. This is when their tweet will show up on the feeds of other people that follow you as well. That is instant publicity for this authors and creates a larger fan bases and communities for them. It could be a good way to test the waters if you are planing on becoming an author of something else like a book.

This is a story about the narrator Nathan and his day when we went to a soiree with is mother. They had to dress nicely since he and his mother are trying to impress the lord's wife, Lady Briggs. The house was awfully hard to find, but once there they are greeted by a beautiful garden and a young boy named Norah. Nathan Bland took one of his mother Valiums before leaving and starts to kick in soon before arriving at the house. At first this is a great experience for Nathan, he called Valium his "Super Pill" and it provides him with amazing colors that are very prominent in the garden of Lady Briggs's town house. However, this Valium sent Nathan into some crazy hallucinations throughout the story. This made the story tense and exciting to read. These hallucinations caused some of Nathans biggest fears to come to life and haunt him throughout his day at the Briggs's town home. Lady Briggs's son Norah was a strange yet witty characters that spent the most time with the main character. While playing a game call the fox and hounds with Norah, Nathan's first bad hallucination start. This brought back to life his horrible nightmare of being attacked by a dog while he was a kid. However, this wasn't a normal dog, this dog in Nathan's hallucinations was the size of a horse and had Norah's head inside of his mouth. This brought so much fear into Nathan that he couldn't even scream for help or run away at first. After this first dog like creature shows up it is all down hill from there. It starts a downward spiral of horrible trips that lead to Nathan going insane... or does it?

The main theme of this story is Fear. Fear is very prominent throughout most of this story. He is afraid of what the bullies will think of him a school, what Norah will think about him, if someone will see him looking "posh", of dogs, his dream, etc. This fear causes him to have this horrible trip from the Valium that he took and sent him into a spiral of some of his worst fears.

## *Hafiz ~~Nanoism~~* (Katie Haefner)

Teju Cole's "Hafiz" is a very interesting piece of Twitter Fiction. It is unique. Cole published Hafiz, "by retweeting lines that he had given other users and asked them to post."  Hafiz is a story about a man collapsing from a heart attack. Hafiz reads like a debriefing of the situation, with every person contributing their two cents. Each user contributed a piece of the story. This makes Cole appear more like a detective gathering information than an author. Each tweet is like a piece of the puzzle. Hafiz challenges what it is to be an author on Twitter. Cole did not write this piece of literature, as far as twitter is concerned. He retweeted specific tweets in order to tell a story. This pushes the boundaries of what it means to be an author. Is Cole an author or an organizer? He is considered the author of Hafiz, because he originally authored each line, and had others post it. However, if another person wanted to create a story similar to Hafiz, they could search for the line they were wanting to use or a similar one. Then retweet the lines in order, and they would have a finished product. Is that user and author or collector?

Hafiz is unique to Twitter Fiction, because it reads from top to bottom without assistance from other programs. Stories from authors like David Mitchell have to be read, "from the bottom up." Mitchell is known for his twenty tweet segments of stories. Mitchell posts his twitter fiction in blocks of tweets rather than individual tweets. Mitchell's works have been reordered by his publisher for a more traditional reading experience. Cole went through and retweeted the story parts in order of appearance, rather than writing the story in real time. This makes Cole’s work unique. Hafiz is a short story on its own, without the use of twitter. Using the tweets has allowed the story to come to life in a manner that it would not have via traditional sources.

The reading experience of Hafiz is unique. Each tweet can only establish one thing. There are tweets to establish setting and different plot points. However, there is not a single tweet that does both. Several of the tweets do not seem like something that a user would casually tweet. However, there are tweets in the story that would not be unusual for someone to casually tweet. Such as, "I called 911. The dispatcher put me through to the EMTs. I told them where we were and what I had seen." Or, "Because we have some dim awareness that being alive is better than being dead, which might be nothing, which might be nothingness." These tweets are hauntingly familiar with real life. That is a reason that Hafiz is notable as a work of fiction. Also, while reading, the reader has to slow down and savor each segment of the story. There is a peacefulness in the discontinuous story telling method. The reader can really slow down and understand each part before moving on to the next tweet of information. This is a very unique aspect of twitter fiction.

## References

1. ↑ http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/09/the-rise-of-twitter-fiction/404761/
2. ↑ http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/09/the-rise-of-twitter-fiction/404761/
3. ↑ A term used to describe the space of Twitter.
4. ↑ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/10646921/Philip-Pullmans-latest-literary-endeavour-the-Twitter-tale-of-Jeffrey-the-housefly.html
5. ↑ http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/09/the-rise-of-twitter-fiction/404761/
6. ↑ http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/great-american-twitter-novel
7. ↑ http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/great-american-twitter-novel
8. ↑ http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/great-american-twitter-novel
9. ↑ http://www.npr.org/2014/01/16/262473432/forget-the-new-yorker-storyteller-turns-to-twitter
10. ↑ http://www.npr.org/2014/01/16/262473432/forget-the-new-yorker-storyteller-turns-to-twitter