So far half decent the assignment went better than expected and I found the twitter format to be more of a nuisance than a problem. The story I created was on par with others that I've come up with, more on that later, perhaps....
Despite some early set backs I found the story flowed freely and easily and required only mild tweaking to fit the format well enough. I especially enjoyed the multiple tweet story format. I found it allowed for greater story complexity and plot in general. In genera,l however, I found the idea of twitter fiction to be interesting. The idea that some body could use the series of apparently random tweets to create a story that can be seen from not just one perspective but multiple perspectives at once. This is what I believe is the strength of twitter fiction. It multiplies the perspective and do to its nature these perspectives can be expressed in a relatively small sample of writing. If done right it can also create very diverse and well flushed out characters without the need for complex back stories and character insight. The whole tweet is an insight of what the characters think of one event and if enough tweets are compiled it paints a very clear picture of the characters point of view, likes and dislikes, weaknesses and strengths and so on. In my opinion this is the true strength of twitter fiction. To use a social networking system to convey the opinions of characters in an event as opposed to being explained the event by the story. It is up to you figure out what the person is saying. As a result, a twitter fiction is a more active and can be a dynamic story if done right. This is what makes a twitter fiction good, my only regret is that I did not understand this principal at the time I invented my story.
The main issue I see with the technique is it creates a story that is difficult to follow and highly complex. For a casual reader it would probably be a irritant. For a reader looking for more of a challenge it would present a truly unique experience and would probably be an intellectual test to keep up with the story. Another minor fault with this story pattern is the challenge of writing in personal biasness. It should be impossible to get the full true story from any one character. As for me the issue I have with my personal twitter fiction is the use of the standard short story format with adaptations for twitter were I to write it again I would personally try for something more along the lines I have described above. Another issue i have with my twitter fiction is the clunky,chunky dialogue. Do to a lack of experience in writing and a difficulty in holding a conversation myself the dialogue pieces in my story are at best clunky and at worst irritating beyond belief. More practice in this aspect of writing is necessary for me to create a story that I would actually want to read. This to me is the main reason i took this class in creative writing. To learn the skills and techniques necessary to write a story that i would actually want to read.
As for the other twitter fictions I have read, well, how do you think I got the idea for the format above. I realized the value of this literary technique when going through the story written by Elliot Holt. Although, I did not read another completed twitter fiction I still found the pattern laid down in her story to be a good bench mark for how to use twitter in a new and creative way to write a story. Instead of doing what I did and using it like a under powered word document. This style of writing is best suited for twitter because it uses the twitter info-structure to its advantage. By creating multiple twitter pages for multiple characters and amalgamating them on to one central page the effect of a unique and diverse points of views is achieved.
In closing I find the twitter fiction format to be a unique and diverse writing style that is well deserved as a surprising complex way of writing. I would personally love to see a book written in a similar fashion. As for myself the process of writing a twitter fiction has given me respect for the sight and the idea but has not taught me anything that I did not already know. To reinvent a statement that I have made many times before not just in this articles but others the format is not the issue. I did not take this class to use different formats in fiction but to just simply learn how to write fiction.
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