Text message novel

[blacbird]

A novel consisting entirely of Internet-style text-messages has just been published in Finland:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16790277/

Here, from the above story, is the best part about it:

"The texts are rife with grammatical errors and abbreviations commonly used in regular SMS traffic."

I can hardly wait to get my talons on it. How about you?

caw

[Shadow_Ferret]

It's the end of the world as we know it.

[Jamesaritchie]

Sound like a must read for all those people out there who never read novels.

[Bravo]

dammit.

this so shouldve been my idea.

[PattiTheWicked]

Movie alert: "Titanic" as AIM Convo (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRejAhVPlzo)

[MidnightMuse]

So was he paid in phone minutes?

[Del]

It sounds creative. It just doesn't sound interesting.

[TwentyFour]

OMG I DID THIS ONCE FOR FUN!

I had some people on yahoo who decided I was a horrible person (yeah, on yahoo! LOL! in chat and I was supposed to care?). So anyway, me and some internet pals made clones of all the people in the chat room that we disliked and we came in saying we were hemaphrodites and so on...

Anyway, because we had our own names and such, we were not banned from yahoo...we got tons of their weird little yahoo secrets and put them in a fictional book on LULU.com. Several people actually bought it! I couldn't believe it!

I deleted it right afterward but it was titled "Dramatic Chatroom Drama's" and had a bloody rose and knife on the cover. It used to be here: http://www.lulu.com/content/336006 Had I known others might want to see it, I would have kept it.

[stormie]

i c i missd it. thank u 4 the info.

[IrishScribbler]

It interests me in the area of contemporary writing, inspiring discussion on what constitutes literature, etc.

I imagine artists had much the same reaction the first time an artist bent a metal beam into an arc and called it art.

[MajorDrums]

What a gimmick.

[TwentyFour]

ooops...I forgot to say my book was made up convo's we had and it referenced the chat names of others in the chat room. One guy repeatedly said "Damn Ohio weather!" So we made a character who said that and imitated him repeatedly (he loved it though). Holly a woman who claimed to be a model in Canada was our psycho hemaphrodite.

[scribbler1382]

A better analog would be the first time an artist took a metal beam and told people to imagine it bent into an arc and called it art. (lazy bastards)

[IrishScribbler]

A better analog would be the first time an artist took a metal beam and told people to imagine it bent into an arc and called it art. (lazy bastards)

LOL

Then can I give a publisher two hundred-fifty sheets of paper and tell them to imagine it's the next great American novel?

[moth]

TTFN and TTYL by Lauren Myracle are YA titles with the same format.

[IrishScribbler]

TTFN and TTYL by Lauren Myracle are YA titles with the same format.

YA is different, though, IMO.



On a slightly related note, this idea reminds me of Up the Down Staircase by Bel Kaufman.

[Shadow_Ferret]

I had always thought that writing a book entirely in dialect and slang was to be avoided. I'm certainly not going to struggle through a book filled with abbreviations I don't understand.

But then I'm not the target audience. Whatever the target audience is.

[PeeDee]

2morrow iz anudder dai!!!11

i dun giva dam grrrrl!

...

*sigh*

So really, what you're saying is, there is no feasible reason why Carrie and I couldn't publish our Variety Hours are serious pieces of literature? I mean, why not? We're a leg up already, we used sentences.

[arrowqueen]

I cringe when I read actual text messages written in abbreviations. Reading this would reduce me to foaming at the mouth and biting people.

[scribbler1382]

So really, what you're saying is, there is no feasible reason why Carrie and I couldn't publish our Variety Hours are serious pieces of literature? I mean, why not? We're a leg up already, we used sentences.

Do a global search and replace to dump all the vowels and call it Slavik text messaging.

[Haggis]

2morrow iz anudder dai!!!11

i dun giva dam grrrrl!

...

*sigh*

So really, what you're saying is, there is no feasible reason why Carrie and I couldn't publish our Variety Hours are serious pieces of literature? I mean, why not? We're a leg up already, we used sentences.

Those were sentences?



:D

[PeeDee]

They must be, I assumed that was why you hadn't read it yet. :)

Has this Finish novel actually SOLD any copies yet? Does anyone know?

[icerose]

Sounds painful.

[Jamesaritchie]

It interests me in the area of contemporary writing, inspiring discussion on what constitutes literature, etc.

I imagine artists had much the same reaction the first time an artist bent a metal beam into an arc and called it art.

A good analogy. Bent metal beams are crap, too.

[PeeDee]

I can tell if something's modern art by if I go "What the Badword is this?" while looking at it.

I went to the Minneapolis Art Institute with my in-laws, who stood around and said wise things about modern art, but could not, if pressed, tell me what it WAS or why they liked it.

A text message novel. Pffft. I'll stick with using all the letters in the word, thanks. It irks me when people abbreviate even in conversation with me.

(text conversation, obviously. No one has ever SAID "b slash c" to me in real life.)

[IrishScribbler]

You crack me up PeeDee.

I don't like most modern art, but some I do like, but I can explain why I like it, too.

[PeeDee]

You crack me up PeeDee.

I don't like most modern art, but some I do like, but I can explain why I like it, too.

That's all I ask. I don't generally like abstract art for the same reason, but there are some pieces I do like, and I like it because I have a reason, and I can explain it. That's enough for me, be it movies or music or art or writing. Have a reason. It doesn't have to be deep, but it should be there. And it shouldn't involve the words "like" and "y'know?"

[IrishScribbler]

...And it shouldn't involve the words "like" and "y'know?"

Or hand gestures in place of words.

[PeeDee]

Particularly if you're a writer. I expect more. :)

Like Stephen King said, if you can't describe it then you might be, I don't know, sort of like, my sense of it is, maybe in the wrong f**king class.

[benbradley]

Sound like a must read for all those people out there who never read novels.
So this is a novel for people who only read cell phones?

Does each page have a small window that can only hold a dozen or so words?

[Imelda]

OMG Y WA DIS PBLSHD?!

Ok, I'll talk normally now, although I admit to using text speak ... in a text message. I refuse to us it on instant messaging.

I can understand the lure of a challenge like this. After all, the epistolary novel has been around for centuries, this is just a modern update ... but really, why keep it in text language? Why not just make it plain normal English and forget that silly 180 character rule? Why not pretend the protag had one of those email phones and write short emails instead? I don't think the 'author' actually has a right to use that title, because texting is not writing, it's something else that hijacked the alphabet for its own nefarious purposes.

[Carrie in PA]

omg u r a ritr 2??!!! lololllllloollll!!!!!!!!11111111111

*puke*

[PeeDee]

because texting is not writing, it's something else that hijacked the alphabet for its own nefarious purposes.

By hijacked, you mean kidnapped, raped, and sent to walk the gutters....

(does not like texting one little bit)

[Carrie in PA]

(does not like texting one little bit)

I love sending text messages. But I always type stuff out, no matter how tedious. I'm a rebel. :D

[jbal]

TISJCM= this is stupid, just call me.

[MidnightMuse]

Text messaging will bring about the fall of mankind.

Or somethin'.

I think.

[Akuma]

In other news, the nation mourns the loss of the beloved Mrs. Spelling.

Her funeral will take place this Saturday and thousands are expected to come. She will be laid to rest next to her husband, the late Mr. Grammar.

[RG570]

From here on, language is going to degenerate. People will defend it, saying "it's perfectly correct, because language is defined by common useage."

I hate that argument.

I've heard of kids in school using IM talk on tests and essays and not seeing a problem with it. I sure as hell don't envy the teachers right now.

[Del]

Text messaging will bring about the fall of mankind.

Or somethin'.

I think.

It mit j forc t nat ev o telep

Translation:

It might just force the natural evolution of telepathy.

[kristie911]

First Tom Cruise as the new Scientology "Christ" and now this. I think Shadow Ferret is right...the end of the world is near.

Now excuse me while I start digging my fallout shelter in my backyard.

[athena_biddy]

I think a "novel" like this is rediculous. This was actually published but some really great authors can not find a publisher who will give them the time of day? Does anyone else see something wrong with that?

[Del]

I think a "novel" like this is rediculous. This was actually published but some really great authors can not find a publisher who will give them the time of day? Does anyone else see something wrong with that?

No. If great writers are truly great then they will get the time of day.

I like that something different has been published. It gets us out of the "we want what we had success with before" mentality. Some times a risk works and that means that maybe they will risk me.

I am not in competition with other writers. I am in competition with the quality of writing. No one is keeping me from a publisher but me.