On June 19th, I started doing something crazy: writing a novel on Twitter. Not about Twitter, on it, line by line, chunk by chunk.
Watching people in Iran tweeting news out of their country when the press was shut out inspired me. So I just started writing a Southern crime story, not that those two are remotely related.
Let me be clear, I am not the first person to do this. When I started doing it, I had not seen it done, but I’m not the most Twitterish person tweeting. There are others out there, but few writing crime fiction, or so I’m told. I say this because a guy with a publicist has been touting his novel nationally as the first on Twitter. I started a month before him, but never claimed to be the first. I should have. The tweeting backlash against his claim has been thorough and warranted.
Tossing a story out 140 characters at a clip is like being a regular on Saturday Night Live. It is completely fly-by-the-seat-of-your pants. Every good and bad thing you do is live and unchangeable once it is posted. Twitter noveling is not for the feint of heart.
As the story grows and followers follow, I get comments like:
“Why are you wasting time on such frivolity when you could be working 24-7 on your job, slacker.”
“Maybe your company should fire you and find someone who pays attention in meetings.”
The last one was posted during work hours by someone not doing their own job, while bashing me for not doing mine.
Our Web guru, Jeff Johnson has pushed my feeble words and fought my surly detractors like a man possessed. Fred has put up with me posting during lunch, instead of working, like I have done for years. My family has put up with me writing early in the morning and late at night. My friends have been kind enough to read it consistently. My old friend, Social Media superstar, Connie Reece, gives me advice that I should take but usually don’t even understand.
It’s called “No Good End” and if you are interested, this is where to find it daily:
http://twitter.com/ttaylordude
It is also posted right here on By The Campfire in chronological order every week by Big River. If you want to read a gritty, story filled with flawed characters, check it out. If you want to live a gritty story filled with flawed characters, start writing a novel on Twitter.
