Twitter Fiction, if it can be described as a single entity, derives its uniqueness as being a subset of electronic literature delivered specifically via the Twitter platform. It affords the author the advantage of the platform: an opportunity to connect with some of the 330 million users who visit monthly and (presumably? hopefully? potentially?) consume content.
Twitter narratives appear to be carving a new wave in
certain areas of communicating fiction, but there are some interesting overlaps
with earlier waves of changes in communication technology. When the printing
press was first being used there were a variety of roles that emerged, perhaps
we are seeing some similar roles emerging with Twitter?
According to Eisenstein, there were four different scribal
roles associated with manuscript preparation. Scriptors to transcribed
documents without making any editorial changes. Compilators transcribing
documents and adding the words of benefactors. A commentator transcribing
documents and adding personal comments and conjecture. An auctor (author)
writing their own intellectual creations but also incorporating the works of
others in the body of their work (Eisenstein, 1983, p. 85). In other words,
manuscripts were often evolving documents, not static documents.
Similarly, Twitter narratives are evolving to have a number
of roles and are evolving documents. Examples include writers who Tweet stories, and compilers who scrape
Tweets to recreate and reframe stories. Some Twitter users are content to
reTweet without adding their own content or perspectives, others engage in a
value-adding process; but there are profoundly similar components of the way we
communicate digitally now, compared to how we communicated centuries ago. Our brains have not evolved as fast as our technology...
The key differences between Twitter narrative and
traditional print narrative include: speed of publication, multimodality, and
audience.
Speed: While books might take years to write, layout,
design, print, and distribute; Tweets take seconds. Andrew Fitzgerald gives an
excellent description of real-time story telling and our capacity to produce
and distribute Twitter narratives very quickly.
Multimodality: While books have variation in size, shape,
binding, font, paper, ink; Tweets might include video, sound, images and links
to other much more interactive media, like the Westwing Twitter accounts. Books traditionally communicate to readers, but Twitter narratives can have communication between any combination of writers, commenters and readers.
Audience: Books have an audience limited to the holder of
the book, and even with e-books there is normally a limitation in the number of
people who can receive a book. Readers do not need to be Twitter users to read
Tweets, however they do need computer and internet access, as well as a level
of computer literacy.
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References:
Eisenstein, E. L. (1983). The printing
revolution in early modern Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Fitzgerald, A. (2013). “Adventures in Twitter Fiction, Ted Talks,
The transitory nature of Twitter makes it difficult to tell stories, whether fictional or otherwise. While there are tools (ScribbleLive, CoverItLive, Storify) to collect tweets, an editor is required to aggregate the work.
In the example of Elliot Holt’s #TwitterFiction [sic] project, the story is narrated by three characters, each with their own Twitter handle. Indeed, the permalinks to Holt's tweets are not active anymore, so the story only exists in its aggregated form.
A screenshot of Holt's story on Penguin Press' Storify.
Holt’s story was part of the Twitter Fiction Festival and hosted by Penguin Press. In the finished project, an editor from Penguin has aggregated the content into a Storify page. Should the editor be getting credit for their role in the story’s creation?
"In most ways, the Story Time Twitter reading experience is awful. You’re waiting for tweets, as the author painstakingly tries to contort a long story into some indeterminate number of 140-character chunks. Tweets get lost in your timeline unless you’re vigilantly paying attention.”
Though I'm a transliterate reader, I find it difficult to follow a narrative without an aggregated story. Therefore, Twitter fiction presents a problem of accessibility: not all readers have the time/means to enjoy the story live. Typically, I tune into the Twitter story well after it has unfolded. Take for example, the tale of Aziah King (NSFW). I would venture that this aggregation is counter to Twitter’s nature as a place for brief texts written quickly in a casual manner.
As Rita King puts it, "Twitter story experiments aren’t shackled by the linear requirements of paper”. Though I applaud the progressive nature of Twitter stories, I still cling to narratives in print. This recalls our reading of How the Page Matters by Bonnie Mak. To me, the stories still ends at “the edges of the cognitive space” of the page (p. 13).
In Andrew Fitzgerald’s TED talk "Adventures in Twitter fiction", he provides an intriguing graphic of Twitter interactions. This web is so wide, it is impossible to extricate any one user or story.
I think this graphic is an apt metaphor for the multimodality of Twitter. In contrast, print fiction is distinctly one dimensional. That said, print media is innovating and expanding its boundaries.
It makes me think of the early 2000s, when newspapers tried to garner more web traffic by starting printing QR codes alongside stories. Little coded boxes would appear next to the text, encouraging readers to scan the code and connect with further information online. This technology was cumbersome at best: you had to download a separate app to read the codes. Of course, now QR codes are somewhat redundant thanks to advances in near field technology (NFC).
References
Holt, E. (n.d.). @ElliottHolt's #TwitterFiction Story (with image, tweets). Retrieved January 27, 2016, from https://storify.com/penguinpress/elliotholt-s-twitterfiction-story
King, R. (2013, May 22). How Twitter Is Reshaping The Future Of Storytelling. Retrieved January 27, 2016, from http://www.fastcoexist.com/1682122/how-twitter-is-reshaping-the-future-of-storytelling
Mak, B. (2011). How the page matters. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Pierce, D. (2016, January 22). Gather Around, Folks, for the Brilliance of Story Time Twitter. Retrieved January 27, 2016, from http://www.wired.com/2016/01/gather-around-folks-for-the-brilliance-of-story-time-twitter
Fitzgerald, A. [TED]. (2013, October 11). Andrew Fitzgerald: Adventures in Twitter fiction [video file]. Retrieved January 27, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6ZzmqDMhi0
