Tuesday, February 10, 2009

re-writing a novel in 140 characters


Peter Sagal, the host of NPR's Wait...Wait Don't Tell Me! (yes, I am a big nerd. And so is my spouse. My son listens to podcasts of the show on his ipod) has started a meme.

He is encouraging folks to write Twitter-length versions of novels. For those who don't know about Twitter (or can't be bothered to sign up), every "tweet" must be no longer than 140 characters. Sagal came up with a Twitter version of
The Grapes of Wrath:
"Times are hard. Sister breast feeding homeless guy. I am so outta here."

You can read more examples here.

Here's mine:

"Ambitious mothers are annoying. Nice girls marry well. Loose girls get trapped. Colin Firth smolders on."

See? (That's Pride and Prejudice, by the way).

Want to play? If you tweet, then be sure and add the hashtag #twitternovels. If not, feel free to just leave your mini-novel in the comments.


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

This made me laugh so I passed it along to my friend Lori who lead me on a very informative "Colin Firth" pilgrimage in London in the fall.

Chiswick, Eco store, hand prints, rent movies not released in North America, visit movie locations,

Thanks neighbour

Babz Rawls Ivy said...

I loved it! I did A Raisin In The Sun....

It was hard to condense to 140 characters LOL! But I must admit it FUN! LOL!

Loved yours by the way! very witty!

Anonymous said...

1) I just might have to start Tweeting now!
2) I'm going to listen to that podcast all next week when I have to take a break from the computer for eye surgery! Thanks for the suggestion.