Millions of 140-character quips pop up on Twitter each day, and whether users are talking about politics, food, the weather or their location, they always seem to have something to say.
While some users vent and others tweet photos, the masterminds at Twitter aim to sync users across the world with personal stories and anecdotes. Anyone can become a storyteller during the first-ever Twitter Fiction Festival (#twitterfiction), a five-day event beginning Nov. 28. A selection of authors and ideas will be announced on Monday, Nov. 19 to harness and funnel the experiment into something memorable. Participants are invited to create any literary experiment that challenges the limits of Twitter content sharing.
“From time to time, creative individuals undertake exciting Twitter-based projects that push the bounds of how we define storytelling on Twitter,” says Andrew Fitzgerald of Twitter's media team. “We want to encourage more of that, by bringing storytellers together all at the same time and bringing an audience to them.”
He expects a wide-range of diverse submissions in varied formats — especially because users don’t have to represent their true identities, thus, experimentation can thrive.
“The flexibility Twitter offers, combined with the global audience, makes it a prime place to experiment with telling stories,” Fitzgerald says.
Until Monday's deadline, anyone could pitch a proposal through Twitter's blog, as long as the project fits into the five-day festival, whether for the entirety or for an hour.
A similar project, called “Black Box,” took place in June. Bestselling author Jennifer Egan tweeted a story in dozens of installments.
The stars are always there, scattered and blinking.— New Yorker Fiction (@NYerFiction) June 3, 2012
Looking up at the sky from below can feel like floating, suspended, and looking down.— New Yorker Fiction (@NYerFiction) June 3, 2012
The universe will seem to hang beneath you in its milky glittering mystery.— New Yorker Fiction (@NYerFiction) June 3, 2012
Although Twitter has hosted many other creative experiments in the past, the Twitter Fiction Festival wants to collect several projects at one time, in the hopes of highlighting creativity on the platform.
“With the ultimate creative canvas, a global audience of hundreds of millions and a real-time broadcasting platform, Twitter gives storytellers an unprecedented laboratory in which to tell stories,” Fitzgerald says. “And we’re only just getting started.”