Writing a book on Twitter
On 21st February I’ll have been on Twitter for 4 years. I’ve written almost 10,000 tweets, about 100,000 words, which in turn is about the size of a 400 page book. I’ve never written so many words in my life. Which got me thinking: can I use Twitter to write that novel of mine?
I’m aware that people have written “Twitter books”, but I’m not talking about using it in that way; rather, can I use Twitter instead of Word, or whatever, to motivate me to actually write meaningful prose?
Writing tweets is compelling. I do it every day, almost without fail. Encapsulating thoughts in 140 characters has energised my brain. I’ve always agonised over prose, the rhythms and cadences, it’s what I enjoy most about writing, and Twitter has oiled the cogs of that process.
As an experiment I started a spoof Twitter account, @doorstim, just to see what it’s like to tweet ‘fictionally’, and embody a character. It’s not going anywhere, but it’s a fun exercise.
Is anyone else using Twitter in this way, not particularly to gain an audience, but simply to galvanise their own writing?
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