Twitter Fiction Festival + Tweet Tales Tuesday Week 46
November 27, 2012

15 Minute Tweet TalesHave you heard about the Twitter Fiction Festival? From Wednesday, November 28th through Sunday, December 2nd, Twitter is hosting a celebration of storytelling at the hashtag #twitterfiction. They asked writers from around the world to submit proposals to be included in the festival, so I screwed up my courage and sent in an idea.

They were supposed to announce the selected authors last Monday, but I still haven’t heard anything. For a while I maintained hope because (as I learned from obsessively googling and checking Twitter) no one else had heard anything either – not a single peep of celebration from anyone. But since the festival starts tomorrow and you’d think people would have to know if they were officially participating, I sadly have to assume I’m not one of the chosen ones.
 
Edit: They posted the official selection list around 2:00pm, and as I suspected, my name is nowhere to be found. *sad face*
 
But never fear! I’ve decided since I’ve already prepped for it (and it’s really just a souped up version of my regular 15 Minute Tweet Tales), I’m going to participate anyway in an unofficial capacity. And to explain what I’ll be doing, I’m copying a chunk from my festival application:
 
What's your proposal? Describe the story you'd like to tell… how would you tell it… what are the Twitter accounts you'd use?
 
For the past year, I’ve been running a daily Twitter fiction challenge called 15 Minute Tweet Tales using the hashtag #15tt. I have a word-a-day calendar, and each day as I uncover the new erudite word, I give myself fifteen minutes to come up with a story using that word. It’s great exercise for my writing muscles and has the added bonus of boosting my vocabulary. The full explanation can be found here.
 
The best part is that other people in the Twitter-verse also play along, so each day there are many diverse stories inspired by the same word. Touching, funny, horrific, sad, lyrical – the variety of tales told each day guarantees there will be something for everyone to enjoy. 
 
My proposal for the Twitter Fiction Festival is to continue what I have been doing: provide a word each day for all participants to create their own masterpieces of Twitter fiction. I would use my Twitter account (@JocelynRish) to post the word and my own tweet tale, and then anyone else who wants to participate would tweet tales from their Twitter accounts with the hashtag #15tt.
 
I know there are others out there running similar fiction challenges, so I propose to take mine a step further. In the world of novels, many bestsellers end up being made into movies, so each day of the festival, I will turn one of the 15 Minute Tweet Tales into a short animated film. 
 
I will usually select the tweet tale with the most retweets as the one to animate, but since the animation software I use is relatively limited, I’ll have to use my own discretion as to what I can accomplish on screen. 
 
Just like Twitter condenses a story into 140 characters, Twitter will also be used to condense the lifecycle of a novel-to-screen adaption into 24 hours. The stories will be published, become bestsellers by the number of retweets, and be turned into movies to then be shared via Twitter the next day.
 
I hope the #15tt regulars will join in on the fun, and if you haven’t played along yet, now’s a great time to jump in since your tweet tale has a chance to be animated. Although I have to stress again how limited the animation software is (not to mention my skills using it), so each day I’ll be picking the one with the most retweets that I’m also able to animate.  Things to keep in mind to increase the chances of your #15tt getting animated: 
  1. The software cannot animate animals or children.
  2. The choices for props, settings, and costumes are very limited so keep it simple.
  3. Actions are easier to animate that thoughts or feelings.
  4. But it's not like intricate stuntman actions are available.
And here’s an example of what it will look like:
 
 
As you can see, it has amazing production values. And the voice-over actors are particularly Oscar worthy. 🙂  It’s just a silly bit of fun, so I hope y’all will dust off your storytelling skills and play along!
 
Also make sure you check out the #twitterfiction hashtag during the five days of the Twitter Fiction Festival to see all the creative storytelling experiments taking place.
 
And at looong last, here are my 15 Minute Tweet Tales for the past week:
 
11/21 – I should never have come to this hermitage by myself to write. Especially not a horror novel. I jump at every sound. Wait, what's tha—
 
11/22 – The newest senior class scapegrace is extremely good looking. Principal Jones licks her lips as she imagines ways to rehabilitate him.
 
11/23 – She dozed as the lawyer went over the jabberwocky in the prenup. Big mistake since her husband ran off with the maid 6 months later.
 
11/24 – Kim's in a preprandial frenzy finalizing the meal she made for her vile mother-in-law: the arsenic sauce only goes on one of the plates.
 
11/25 – After he proposes on the jumbotron, he mafficks around the stadium, not knowing she only said YES to not embarrass him on national TV.
 
11/26 – The professor's lectures are abstruse, but she's getting an A. She'd gone to his office to "beg" on her knees and saw Tom got there 1st.
 
11/27 – The scarecrow likes gossiping with the crows, but the farmer threatens to literally fire him if he doesn't fulfill his corvine duties.
 
Are you planning to check out the Twitter Fiction Festival? Do you think you’ll write any #15tt tweet tales during the festival? Any thoughts about this week's tweet tales or #15tt words?

15 Minute Tweet TalesHave you heard about the Twitter Fiction Festival? From Wednesday, November 28th through Sunday, December 2nd, Twitter is hosting a celebration of storytelling at the hashtag #twitterfiction. They asked writers from around the world to submit proposals to be included in the festival, so I screwed up my courage and sent in an idea.

They were supposed to announce the selected authors last Monday, but I still haven’t heard anything. For a while I maintained hope because (as I learned from obsessively googling and checking Twitter) no one else had heard anything either – not a single peep of celebration from anyone. But since the festival starts tomorrow and you’d think people would have to know if they were officially participating, I sadly have to assume I’m not one of the chosen ones.
 
Edit: They posted the official selection list around 2:00pm, and as I suspected, my name is nowhere to be found. *sad face*
 
But never fear! I’ve decided since I’ve already prepped for it (and it’s really just a souped up version of my regular 15 Minute Tweet Tales), I’m going to participate anyway in an unofficial capacity. And to explain what I’ll be doing, I’m copying a chunk from my festival application:
 
What's your proposal? Describe the story you'd like to tell… how would you tell it… what are the Twitter accounts you'd use?
 
For the past year, I’ve been running a daily Twitter fiction challenge called 15 Minute Tweet Tales using the hashtag #15tt. I have a word-a-day calendar, and each day as I uncover the new erudite word, I give myself fifteen minutes to come up with a story using that word. It’s great exercise for my writing muscles and has the added bonus of boosting my vocabulary. The full explanation can be found here.
 
The best part is that other people in the Twitter-verse also play along, so each day there are many diverse stories inspired by the same word. Touching, funny, horrific, sad, lyrical – the variety of tales told each day guarantees there will be something for everyone to enjoy. 
 
My proposal for the Twitter Fiction Festival is to continue what I have been doing: provide a word each day for all participants to create their own masterpieces of Twitter fiction. I would use my Twitter account (@JocelynRish) to post the word and my own tweet tale, and then anyone else who wants to participate would tweet tales from their Twitter accounts with the hashtag #15tt.
 
I know there are others out there running similar fiction challenges, so I propose to take mine a step further. In the world of novels, many bestsellers end up being made into movies, so each day of the festival, I will turn one of the 15 Minute Tweet Tales into a short animated film. 
 
I will usually select the tweet tale with the most retweets as the one to animate, but since the animation software I use is relatively limited, I’ll have to use my own discretion as to what I can accomplish on screen. 
 
Just like Twitter condenses a story into 140 characters, Twitter will also be used to condense the lifecycle of a novel-to-screen adaption into 24 hours. The stories will be published, become bestsellers by the number of retweets, and be turned into movies to then be shared via Twitter the next day.
 
I hope the #15tt regulars will join in on the fun, and if you haven’t played along yet, now’s a great time to jump in since your tweet tale has a chance to be animated. Although I have to stress again how limited the animation software is (not to mention my skills using it), so each day I’ll be picking the one with the most retweets that I’m also able to animate.  Things to keep in mind to increase the chances of your #15tt getting animated: 
  1. The software cannot animate animals or children.
  2. The choices for props, settings, and costumes are very limited so keep it simple.
  3. Actions are easier to animate that thoughts or feelings.
  4. But it's not like intricate stuntman actions are available.
And here’s an example of what it will look like:
 
 
As you can see, it has amazing production values. And the voice-over actors are particularly Oscar worthy. 🙂  It’s just a silly bit of fun, so I hope y’all will dust off your storytelling skills and play along!
 
Also make sure you check out the #twitterfiction hashtag during the five days of the Twitter Fiction Festival to see all the creative storytelling experiments taking place.
 
And at looong last, here are my 15 Minute Tweet Tales for the past week:
 
11/21 – I should never have come to this hermitage by myself to write. Especially not a horror novel. I jump at every sound. Wait, what's tha—
 
11/22 – The newest senior class scapegrace is extremely good looking. Principal Jones licks her lips as she imagines ways to rehabilitate him.
 
11/23 – She dozed as the lawyer went over the jabberwocky in the prenup. Big mistake since her husband ran off with the maid 6 months later.
 
11/24 – Kim's in a preprandial frenzy finalizing the meal she made for her vile mother-in-law: the arsenic sauce only goes on one of the plates.
 
11/25 – After he proposes on the jumbotron, he mafficks around the stadium, not knowing she only said YES to not embarrass him on national TV.
 
11/26 – The professor's lectures are abstruse, but she's getting an A. She'd gone to his office to "beg" on her knees and saw Tom got there 1st.
 
11/27 – The scarecrow likes gossiping with the crows, but the farmer threatens to literally fire him if he doesn't fulfill his corvine duties.
 
Are you planning to check out the Twitter Fiction Festival? Do you think you’ll write any #15tt tweet tales during the festival? Any thoughts about this week's tweet tales or #15tt words?

Jocelyn Rish

Jocelyn Rish is a writer and filmmaker who never imagined her cheeky sense of humor would lead to a book about animal butts. When she's not researching fanny facts, she tutors kids to help them discover the magic of reading. Jocelyn has won numerous awards for her short stories, screenplays, short films, and novels and lives in South Carolina with her booty-ful dogs.