For a long time, I struggled with how to use my Twitter account. For the most part, everything it was capable of, I could also do with Facebook, and I liked that Facebook also had all the backend stuff. The pictures, the lists of interests, the discussion boards. Twitter just seemed rather pointless, so I mostly used my account to talk about things about my which my Facebook friends would not want to hear. My bowel movements, for instance. (I find there is much value in cataloging bowel movements, but this is not an idea I will push too hard.)

At some point it occurred to me that I could use Twitter to write stories. I believe I was sitting at a bus stop. A lot of great ideas come while waiting at the bus. Anyway, a first line got lodged in my head, as they often do. I needed to write it down, but I did not have my notebook with me. I did have my phone. It occurred to me that so long as I kept my paragraphs or lines short (under 140 characters, anyway), then I could continue on in this fashion for as long as I needed.

Obviously, writing in this way isn’t conducive to any work of particularly great length. But it’s rather perfect for flash fiction–where you build a story quickly, relying as much on what isn’t there as what is–and vignettes, where story building isn’t really necessary at all. In this way, I’ve found Twitter to be an incredibly useful tool for my writing, but this also means sort of eschewing what Twitter is actually meant for. Frankly, I couldn’t care less whether my followers actually read my tweets for not; since I’ve started using Twitter, I’ve used it more as a place to deposit ideas–funny little one liners, first lines, titles, characters (and of course to talk about pooping). It’s used more as a very tiny notebook.

Still, this all does bring up an interesting question, since not everyone uses Twitter the same way I do. In fact, most people don’t. So if you were to have a Twitter that was used primarily to deliver these ultra-short stories, how would people treat it? Would it be easy to follow the action, or would you likely be distracted by the next tweet from one of your other friends? For writers, how do you should that one story has ended? I always feel awkward tweeting anything after I’ve finished one of my stories, because I feel like it’s going to be tied to the story somehow. If a Twitter is a constant narrative, there are no real end points. There aren’t any chapter breaks. It’s just one sentence that follows from the next into infinity.

I realize that I am of course not the only person experimenting with Twitter Fiction, and I’ve got some serious exploring to do. Does anyone know of any good Twitters focusing on ultra-short fiction? Does anyone have any thoughts on Twitter Fiction? Comment here!