To be or not to be: Daily Story Tweet

jonblondyn · Oct 23, 2014

The question -

does the concept of a 'Daily Story Tweet' function as an appropriate medium for delivering your story?

The idea -

tweeting a page/excerpt/chapter of your story, per day, via free PDF document.

The manifestation -

http://www.blondyn.com -

click | LOVE |;

questions/thoughts/critique welcome.

jb

MythMonger · Oct 24, 2014

There's no reason why it couldn't, but you'll be facing different challenges than distributing a whole book.

For example, your reader will need to want more from every segment than what they might need to in a book. With a book, the next segment is just a line down. With your method they'll have to wait a whole day before continuing the story.

The time that readers take to finish your book could stretch out to months or years, and a fast reader might become impatient with that pace. There would always be that nagging doubt on the reader's part as to whether or not you would hold up your end of the bargain and keep tweeting until the end.

Why not just provide the entire book and let the reader determine the pace?

Once! · Oct 24, 2014

I'm interested in how stories can change to suit the new media. After all, the length of novels was largely determined by the practicalities of physically printing a body of work. Now that we don't have this constraint, we can experiment with different formats - very long, very short, serials, multiple endings, multiple media and so on.

As to your example, I am very sorry but I found it confusing. I didn't know what to click on, and when I found some text it seemed to be in the middle of a story. Maybe I'm just being a bear of little brain, but I couldn't get it to work.

I suppose there is also a risk that these hyper short tweets could tend towards the sort of purple prose that doesn't work for me.

For this to work, I think readers would need to have their hands held quite a bit.

Shadow_Ferret · Oct 24, 2014

Will your story have been completed, proofed, edited, and polished before you break it up into tweets, or are you planning on tweeting the story on the fly?

I would hope the former. Trying to write on the fly is just asking for trouble.

And as mythmonger said, if it is completed, why serialize it a tweet at a time? At 140 characters, that would mean daily tweets for nearly two years. No reader has that mind of patience or attention span.

jonblondyn · Oct 24, 2014

MythMonger said:
There's no reason why it couldn't, but you'll be facing different challenges than distributing a whole book.

For example, your reader will need to want more from every segment than what they might need to in a book. With a book, the next segment is just a line down. With your method they'll have to wait a whole day before continuing the story.

Yes, but respectively, let's just say you had 5 minutes of your busy day to do something. You could check the news, the weather, entertainmenttonight . com OR have a fast glance at 1 or 2 or 3 pages of that story that was being daily tweeted via PDF...

MythMonger said:
The time that readers take to finish your book could stretch out to months or years, and a fast reader might become impatient with that pace.

I agree, but think about the story being released as a season of some television series.

How often does an enthusiastic viewer finish watching an episode, only to have it end on a twist that causes the viewer to throw the remote at the screen - furious at the fact that they must wait a whole week to find out what happens?

Does this not create a new pressure for the writer? A pressure for the writer to deliver page, after page, after page? (yikes...)

MythMonger said:
There would always be that nagging doubt on the reader's part as to whether or not you would hold up your end of the bargain and keep tweeting until the end.

True; it should be done in earnestness.

MythMonger said:
Why not just provide the entire book and let the reader determine the pace?

Could be fun to try.

StephanieZie · Oct 24, 2014

jonblondyn said:
Yes, but respectively, let's just say you had 5 minutes of your busy day to do something. You could check the news, the weather, entertainmenttonight . com OR have a fast glance at 1 or 2 or 3 pages of that story that was being daily tweeted via PDF...

If I had five minutes of my busy day to do something, I'd choose something relatively mindless and guaranteed to provide instant gratification. As such, every bit of your story would have to leave me insatiable for the next bit in order for this to work. And I would think you'd want to lean towards pages-long posts rather than tweet-length snippets.

It's not unprecedented though. Larger works are often serialized in monthly magazines or journals. There are also web-comics. Even the most prolific comic artists usually only manage bi or tri-weekly updates, because of the time involved with writing and story-boarding and drawing and formatting, etc. I follow a few comics, and I'm always eager to check them on their scheduled update days, even if one new page only occupies me for a couple of minutes.

But visual art is a different ballgame. For it to work with writing, I would think you'd have to suck the reader in quickly and unrelentingly. And if you can do that anyway, well, why the gimmick?

jonblondyn · Oct 25, 2014

Once! said:
As to your example, I am very sorry but I found it confusing. I didn't know what to click on, and when I found some text it seemed to be in the middle of a story. Maybe I'm just being a bear of little brain, but I couldn't get it to work.

At first glance the site may be confusing but www.blondyn.com is well ordered, simple, and asks the visitor to think - to engage and put the pieces of the puzzle together. As the platform requires interaction, it must be worth the visitor's perusing and perhaps finding this middle ground is the hardest part... The site is still a work in progress; it is as much a work of art, with all parts open to interpretation.

Afterall, a story is not visible on the surface; why should a website be?

Once! said:
For this to work, I think readers would need to have their hands held quite a bit.

Yes, possibly, but what I like best is that I've been exhibiting a newfound attention to detail - having on several occasions now, spent several hours perfecting the editing on one or two pages before posting the DST.

Upon completing a page, I ask myself - is this HQ absolutely?

Is this length of narrative entertaining?

Is it revealing, yet mysterious enough to make me want to come back and read another excerpt tomorrow?

These are questions I am suddenly asking myself; there is much yet to learn.

jonblondyn · Oct 30, 2014

StephanieZie said:
It's not unprecedented though. Larger works are often serialized in monthly magazines or journals. There are also web-comics. Even the most prolific comic artists usually only manage bi or tri-weekly updates, because of the time involved with writing and story-boarding and drawing and formatting, etc. I follow a few comics, and I'm always eager to check them on their scheduled update days, even if one new page only occupies me for a couple of minutes.

But visual art is a different ballgame. For it to work with writing, I would think you'd have to suck the reader in quickly and unrelentingly. And if you can do that anyway, well, why the gimmick?

Wouldn't you consider writing, (or the process of reading) to a large degree, a visual art?

Could it be that doing a regular 'several page release' of a story would perhaps give reason for a reader to take more time enjoying the several paragraphs that are being provided, as opposed to racing for the story's end?

Is it still a 'gimmick' if you are generating an audience along the way?

What do you like best about the serialized comics you follow?

BenPanced · Oct 30, 2014

jonblondyn said:
I agree, but think about the story being released as a season of some television series.

How often does an enthusiastic viewer finish watching an episode, only to have it end on a twist that causes the viewer to throw the remote at the screen - furious at the fact that they must wait a whole week to find out what happens?

Does this not create a new pressure for the writer? A pressure for the writer to deliver page, after page, after page? (yikes...)

But that's the nature of the medium. Viewers expect the story to move forward and come to a natural conclusion in each episode or, in the case of daily soaps or continuing dramas such as Game of Thrones or The Walking Dead, to leave on that cliffhanger to make you tune in tomorrow/next week. If the writers for such shows don't know or understand the pressure to produce coherent work on a continuing basis, maybe they need to look for another line of work.

Same with comics. Stories are plotted out across an arc of several issues, sometimes they even cross over to different titles, but writers set the pace so the readers will want to follow along.

Comics and TV shows, however, have much more time to tell their stories. They're structured to do so, and I don't think it's too much of a surprise when a show ends on a cliffhanger. It's probably more of how the show ends on a cliffhanger before the end of a season (see also: Game of Thrones and Dynasty) that causes people to react.

Twitter, however, is a relatively new medium when compared to TV shows and comics. Its main application is a messaging system that I really don't see being used as a method to deliver a novel line by line by line. It's too constricted and I can see people becoming more frustrated over this than how a story is told on TV.

And all I can think of is the series of strips in Peanuts when Snoopy read Tolstoy's War and Peace one word a day.

GigiF · Oct 31, 2014

Interestingly (well, for me anyway), I was recently working on a small side project with a similar premise to this.

I wrote short excerpts for a Minecraft diary writing both events and thoughts. The intention was to tweet one or two tweets per day.

The problem for me was that I didn't want to spam my Twitter followers with them ad I didn't want to start a whole new account based purely on MC diaries. So I had no audience in the end.

Anyway, here's the first bunch of days diaries to show you what I meant:

Day 1
Woke up in a large clearing surrounded by trees, cows and pigs. I have no memory of this place and I don't know how anything works.

I chopped down some trees and used them to craft planks and finish the half built shack I found.
At least I'll have a safe place to sleep tonight.

Day 2
Last night was so scary. A zombie type creature was wandering around the shack. His moaning and scratching on the front door kept me awake all night. I really need to craft a bed but I haven't got the resources yet.

Day 3.
Went exploring up at the local village. It's a nice place. Lots of buildings. Found chests with lots of goodies inside. I hope it was ok that I took whatever I could lay my hands on.

Day 4.
Nights are still a problem. A bunch of weird creatures wander around. The giant spiders I can whack with my stick but the skeletons fire arrows and are a real pain.

I spotted some kind of church on the horizon behind the clearing. I might go visit it tomorrow.

Day 5.
Some weird green cactus thing attacked me. I thought the creatures burned in the sunlight? Obviously not. I need to be more careful. The cactus blew up right outside the shack door. Spent the entire rest of the day fixing up the hole it left.

Day 6.
I decided to explore the village some more and found some good stuff. I feel as though I'm stealing so I tried my best to take only what I really needed. I prefer to craft things myself anyway so I can become more self sufficient.

Day 7.
SHIT! Got my arse handed to me by three cactus creatures. They blew up big chunks of a few buildings in the village. I don't have the stone and other materials so I'll repair them up as best I can using dirt. A bad day.

Day 8.
I explored the local area outside of the village. There's a farm with quite a few animals but excitingly I came across a mine that had coal! I can use it to craft torches meaning I explore deep exploring caves, mines and dungeons from now.

Day 9.
Over the last week and a bit I've learned a lot about crafting. I'm getting quite good at it. The only down side is that I don't have a lot of the materials required to make whatever I want. That church is still calling to me but I'm just too busy to go right now.

Day 10.
I really need a bed. Night times are a nightmare. I got badly hurt by archers and zombies again. I don't have the materials to make shears so I've got no choice but to kill some sheep for their wool for a bed.

Day 11.
Well. I feel quite guilty about killing those sheep but having a bed is awesome! Best sleep I've had since I woke up here. I'm getting more confident with each day and am even going out mining at night. Long as I'm careful I should be OK.

Day 12.
Came across this cave with a beautiful underground waterfall. Spent ages just looking around. The night creatures are getting less scary as I'm getting stronger. I'm quite efficient at killing them since I made my metal sword. The archer's are still a problem though. Their arrows do a lot of damage.

So that was the idea. Be interesting to see what you come up with.

jonblondyn · Nov 3, 2014

GigiF said:
Interestingly (well, for me anyway), I was recently working on a small side project with a similar premise to this.

I wrote short excerpts for a Minecraft diary writing both events and thoughts. The intention was to tweet one or two tweets per day.

The problem for me was that I didn't want to spam my Twitter followers with them ad I didn't want to start a whole new account based purely on MC diaries. So I had no audience in the end.

Anyway, here's the first bunch of days diaries to show you what I meant:

Day 1
Woke up in a large clearing surrounded by trees, cows and pigs. I have no memory of this place and I don't know how anything works.

I chopped down some trees and used them to craft planks and finish the half built shack I found.
At least I'll have a safe place to sleep tonight.

Day 2
Last night was so scary. A zombie type creature was wandering around the shack. His moaning and scratching on the front door kept me awake all night. I really need to craft a bed but I haven't got the resources yet.

Day 3.
Went exploring up at the local village. It's a nice place. Lots of buildings. Found chests with lots of goodies inside. I hope it was ok that I took whatever I could lay my hands on.

Day 4.
Nights are still a problem. A bunch of weird creatures wander around. The giant spiders I can whack with my stick but the skeletons fire arrows and are a real pain.

I spotted some kind of church on the horizon behind the clearing. I might go visit it tomorrow.

Day 5.
Some weird green cactus thing attacked me. I thought the creatures burned in the sunlight? Obviously not. I need to be more careful. The cactus blew up right outside the shack door. Spent the entire rest of the day fixing up the hole it left.

Day 6.
I decided to explore the village some more and found some good stuff. I feel as though I'm stealing so I tried my best to take only what I really needed. I prefer to craft things myself anyway so I can become more self sufficient.

Day 7.
SHIT! Got my arse handed to me by three cactus creatures. They blew up big chunks of a few buildings in the village. I don't have the stone and other materials so I'll repair them up as best I can using dirt. A bad day.

Day 8.
I explored the local area outside of the village. There's a farm with quite a few animals but excitingly I came across a mine that had coal! I can use it to craft torches meaning I explore deep exploring caves, mines and dungeons from now.

Day 9.
Over the last week and a bit I've learned a lot about crafting. I'm getting quite good at it. The only down side is that I don't have a lot of the materials required to make whatever I want. That church is still calling to me but I'm just too busy to go right now.

Day 10.
I really need a bed. Night times are a nightmare. I got badly hurt by archers and zombies again. I don't have the materials to make shears so I've got no choice but to kill some sheep for their wool for a bed.

Day 11.
Well. I feel quite guilty about killing those sheep but having a bed is awesome! Best sleep I've had since I woke up here. I'm getting more confident with each day and am even going out mining at night. Long as I'm careful I should be OK.

Day 12.
Came across this cave with a beautiful underground waterfall. Spent ages just looking around. The night creatures are getting less scary as I'm getting stronger. I'm quite efficient at killing them since I made my metal sword. The archer's are still a problem though. Their arrows do a lot of damage.

So that was the idea. Be interesting to see what you come up with.

This is great, for two reasons.

1. It works (I like)

2. It's a Minecraft Diary (I like)

And the execution reminds me of Hemingway's bullet-point style.

That said, it seems the Twitter medium, for the time being, is not conducive to delivering a story. Tweets are transient, and though each account has a history of what has been tweeted, the interface really doesn't dance.

Do you have a tumblr? I personally haven't used this medium a lot, but maybe you can customize a blog along the lines you are looking for.

For the length of the 'Daily Story Tweets' I've been releasing, the PDF medium is best. The PDF could work for you just as well, with each 'Day' set on its own page. Maybe the font could be a little larger / double spaced / or really formatted however is most beautiful.

If you want to check out my Daily Story Tweets or the novel (Aladdyn) that has been released thus far, they're free on the site -

http://www.blondyn.com

Maybe you could even evolve your story tweets into a full length novel - a novel that you evolve in complexity with each draft. Though this is essentially layering a story, (ordinary writing technique) the real-time opportunity to deliver a viewing experience to the reader along the way seems a glance through the looking glass.

Keep me posted on your progress.

jb

GigiF · Nov 4, 2014

jonblondyn said:
This is great, for two reasons.

1. It works (I like)

2. It's a Minecraft Diary (I like)

And the execution reminds me of Hemingway's bullet-point style.

That said, it seems the Twitter medium, for the time being, is not conducive to delivering a story. Tweets are transient, and though each account has a history of what has been tweeted, the interface really doesn't dance.

Do you have a tumblr? I personally haven't used this medium a lot, but maybe you can customize a blog along the lines you are looking for.

For the length of the 'Daily Story Tweets' I've been releasing, the PDF medium is best. The PDF could work for you just as well, with each 'Day' set on its own page. Maybe the font could be a little larger / double spaced / or really formatted however is most beautiful.

If you want to check out my Daily Story Tweets or the novel (Aladdyn) that has been released thus far, they're free on the site -

http://www.blondyn.com

Maybe you could even evolve your story tweets into a full length novel - a novel that you evolve in complexity with each draft. Though this is essentially layering a story, (ordinary writing technique) the real-time opportunity to deliver a viewing experience to the reader along the way seems a glance through the looking glass.

Keep me posted on your progress.

jb

Thank you very much for that.

I just read aladdyn - wow. It's quite beautiful. Reads like poem being spoken in a dream like state. Really nice.

To be or not to be: Daily Story Tweet

jonblondyn

MythMonger

Willing to Learn

Once!

Still confused by shoelaces

Shadow_Ferret

Court Jester

jonblondyn

StephanieZie

Trust me, I'm a doctor

jonblondyn

jonblondyn

BenPanced

THE BLUEBERRY QUEEN OF HADES (he/him)

GigiF

jonblondyn

GigiF