The eNotes Blog #twitterfiction Worthy of aRetweet

#twitterfiction Worthy of aRetweet Literary festivals come to town and go, and for whatever reason you just couldnt make it out to all you wanted to see this year. Fear not! Now the festival can come to you. Today is the first day of Twitters very own Fiction Festival, an event that draws writers and readers from around the globe together on one page. Literature has never been so instant, accessible, or succinct, as authors craft stories from afar in real time, sometimes as short as 140 characters. The Festival showcase will be a completely virtual event, taking place on Twitter with participants from five continents and stories in five languages. For five days, Wednesday, November 28 to Sunday, December 2, you’ll be able to find creative experiments in story-telling on Twitter around the clock. Want to get involved? At this festival, youre not relegated to the sidelines. Jump in with your own fiction, and use the tag #twitterfiction for all to see your work. You could: create a character and tell a story in his or her voice tell a story from your own account tell a story in a single Tweet and of course, any other creative ideas you have. A showcase page of all the festivals entries can be found at this link. Missed the daily live retweeting of Hamlet?  Dont worry, all of the selections are collated for you like this. Youll never miss a lit festival again. To give you a heads up on the happenings, here are a few highlights. No need to grab a map and traipse from tent to tent! You can also head to Twitters blog for a complete schedule: Starting with the idea of a Twitter feed used as evidence, author Elliott Holt (@elliottholt) will tell the story of a crime. The audience will see that story unfold via three different perspectives, and then will have to weigh the presented evidence for themselves.  Wednesday at 7pm EST Perhaps no story is more powerful than a myth. Lucy Coats (@lucycoats) from Northampton UK, will re-tell 100 Greek myths in 100 Tweets.  Wednesday 21 Nov. till Sunday 25 Nov. 9am EST Emmy Laybourne (@emmylaybourne) and Anna Banks (@byannabanks) will put a humorous spin on the paranormal young adult story with love affair between a teenage girl and aSasquatch.  Wednesday through Sunday at 4pm EST (21:00 GMT)   For author Kurt Crisman (@unpublishedguy) online descriptions of TV episodes tell a story all their own. He’ll weave a whole story together out of these to describe five seasons of a science fiction show with an absurdist twist.  Every day, updated hourly Ifeoluwapo Odedere offers a satire, written in the style of the King James Bible, about a Nigerian community whose attempts to find a sustainable power source are continually thwarted by a saboteur.  Thursday through Saturday at 8am EST In a tense psychological thriller, Andrew Pyper (@andrewpyper) re-tells the classic Henry James ghost story â€Å"The Turn of the Screw† - set in a present-day White House. We will follow the Tweets of the new nanny, who is increasingly convinced something strange is afoot.  Thursday through Sunday at 7pm EST A group of four authors in Paris plan to work together to build collaborative sonnets in French, which they call #TwitRature.  Thursday to Sunday at 5am EST AND if youre lucky enough to be in New York, the New York Public Library will be hosting the festivals only non-virtual  live event  this Saturday. I love that all of these creative people have embraced the idea of twitterature. Im sure its a challenging way to stretch (squeeze?) ones writing skills, and really brings the audience something innovative. What are your thoughts on how Twitter is changing the literary world? Check back next week for a summary of the festivals highlights!

Great Writing is a Goal, Not a Destination

Great Writing is a Goal, Not a Destination One of my favorite short poems is â€Å"Now We Are Six† But now I am six, I’m as clever as clever. So I think I’ll be six now and forever. It makes everyone smile because all adults know that the boy may be as clever as clever in his own eyes, but he has barely started his journey. Now those words make me smile for another reason. I recognize that feeling. It is the same feeling I had when I held the proof copy of my first novel in my hands. Now I am an author, as clever as clever. And I will write novels now and forever. It was a moment of hubris, embarrassing in retrospect, but powerful at the time. Ask any writer about his or her first novel- not the first published novel, but the first novel (s)he ever wrote. I’m sure most of them will laugh and say little more. The novel that gave me my moment of triumph was not the first novel I wrote, but the first one that went out into the world. My moment of triumph lasted for several days until one of my best friends called to tell me what a great book it was†¦and to point out that I was really fond of run-on sentences. That let the air out of my balloon. That was many years ago, and I have since consumed many books, blogs, courses, and workshops about writing. I continue to write, and deep inside I think every book is better than the ones before it. Whether or not my books are better, I will continue to learn and sharpen my craft. I no longer think I’m as clever as clever, but I’m working on it.