You've probably never read a novel this way

Fans of action-driven narrative storytelling should check this out. Buffy has broken down her novel into tweets. Should be quite a ride:

Novel starts at 11 a.m. follow @brain_invaders hashtags = #Invaders & #Twitterfiction Or follow compilation here: bit.ly/YtuMC0

— Buffy Andrews (@Buffyandrews) November 29, 2012

Instant story: The plane with a hole in it

Several passengers documented the Southwest Airlines flight's emergency landing after its fuselage ripped open. @BluestMuse on Twitter, in particular, had a series of compelling posts that really help tell the story.

Short goes long

So Twitter is the beacon (in a way) of short writing, yes?

Sure.

But even on Twitter, long stories are breathing, if just under the surface. I came across @longreads on Twitter, which says it's there to provide "links to long-form journalism and fiction ..." There's stuff on there from The Washington Post, Sports Illustrated, Time magazine, Vanity Fair, and on and on.

Nice.

On short writing

Poynter's Roy Peter Clark on telegraphs, poetry, writing short, and, yes, Twitter. As usual, he has a great take on this, linking the art and utility of short writing through various forms and over decades.

Tweet like a pro

Here's a how-to story that serves two purposes.

First, it's a great look at writing about technology in plain speak.

Second, it's a great way to learn all about twitter.

The love/hate war rages about the awesomeness/super-suck of twitter, but it's worth knowing how to do.

Following politicians on twitter is a great way to score scoops. They say the darnedest things.

Also, twitter is a challenge like no other in keeping writing short.

Done right: quick bursts of useful/funny/poetic prose.

Done wrong: narcissists telling you every move they make. (Unless they are said politicians, and sometimes that leads to the a fore mentioned scoops.)

Golden sources in narrative

Pat Abdalla flagged this story from espn.com that recounts the events leading up to the car accident that killed a young California Angels (sorry, I'm not calling them by their legal name) pitcher named Nick Adenhart.

Pat noticed with interest that the reporter used text-messages and Facebook updates as sources.

The story starts with a scene at the hospital after Adenhart has been pronounced dead; then goes back to 12 hours before the crash, and works its way forward as a narrative. The Facebook and text updates quoted certainly help drive the narrative and give the story specifics it might not otherwise have.

We've talked at different times about those "golden sources" for true narratives -- somebody's journal, an official entry log of events, a videotape of an event from which action can be described -- and you can certainly add Facebook updates, Twitter, text-messaging, all that stuff. The key is to verify that the posts actually were made by the person you're writing about. Once you have that confirmation, you have a valuable source for your story.

Stories from India?

I spent some time today looking for good narratives out of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai. Couldn't find any. Anyone else come across something good?

I have found, meanwhile, a couple interesting things. The Mumbai Mirror, for example, is running at least two separate moment-by-moment timelines of what happened. They're under headlines ("Night of terror," for example) that might lead you to believe a narrative lurked there.

I also checked Twitter feeds for Mumbai, to see if any storytelling could be found there. Not really, although some news organizations are doing what now seems to be the obligatory "social networking feeds cover (fill in the blank tragedy)" story. And here's a blog post about it. But I don't think they're really getting what's on Twitter, at least in the case of the Mumbai attacks; or they're hyping it; or I'm really missing something.

What I found on Twitter the night of the attacks was no first-person victim accounts (might have been too soon, although if you're barricaded in a hotel with your cell phone ...), and very few if any first-person eyewitness accounts. I found a lot of Twitters that linked to CNN and other major news outlets. (Someone's 'tweet' crowed, Covering Mumbai on Twitter. Who needs traditional media? They apparently hadn't figured out what people were linking to.)

It appeared to me that Twitter was not breaking news as much as it was spreading news, or connecting people with the news -- which is still a pretty cool thing, and has promise, but it's a good step or two removed from storytelling or covering the story in any original way. I'm still trying to figure out if/how we can do some sort of productive, valuable, fresh storytelling with a service like Twitter. Jury's out. Thoughts welcomed.

In checking the Mumbai Twitter feed, I also found a 'tweet' that something like, Hung out with a friend and shopped at Target all day. Tired. Just got home and heard about the attacks. Oh, that's terrible.

Now there's something we needed to know.

Don't start at the top!

This is kind of the 2008 version of the "three sentences" project - Many Voices on Twitter.

Here is NPR's explanation of the project (and of Twitter), and here's a free piece of advice from me - don't start at the beginning. Start at the end.