Comments on Assignment B - Storify "Twitter Fiction"

Storify allows you to tell a story using your own words along with curated items from various social media platforms. I wanted to explore the topic of Twitter fiction, so I searched for the words/hashtags twitter fiction, twitter stories and microfiction.

Since my Storify article was meant to be a basic introduction to Twitter fiction as a creative writing genre, I chose social media elements that would best exemplify this concept. I added simple photos from Google and Pinterest, YouTube videos of authors discussing their Twitter fiction creative process, a tweet linking to examples of Twitter fiction, and a slide deck of Twaiku posters. I also searched for user discussions about their Twitter fiction experiences, but I couldn't find any relevant Facebook posts since its a relatively new art form.

Twitter fiction, like any literature genre, is a broad topic and difficult to encapsulate in a few sentences or examples. While my Storify captures the pithy nature of this particular fiction format, I doesn't tackle how this story writing format could impact our societal view of what defines worthwhile literature. 

Good writing requires practice and exposure to good literature. But today's students are from a generation that grazes for snippets of ideas on line and trades cryptic text messages with friends. Why read a book, when you can wait for the movie to come out? 

But ironically, as Carla Raguseo point out, “Twitter fiction can provide learners with a rich language experience in easily digestible fragments. It challenges them both as readers and as writers to attempt and explore multiple meanings and to develop academic skills.” 

Twitter fiction has the potential to incite students to write in a coherent, creative and grammatically correct manner. Some people argue that it might even be a gateway to exploring more traditional literature. However, this would be the topic for a longer academic essay.