Based on Brevity: Fiction in 140 Characters or Less

Abstract

This paper examines how short-short stories published on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter experiment with brevity. It examines the use of devices such as planned spaces between words, colors, and enjambments, a genre called twitter fiction, to deliver the literary aftertaste of `byte-sized' fiction. What are the ramifications, requirements, and results of this form of brevity? Since the works are written and published on/for the digital media, what other aids supplement the reading process, if any? What forms of innovation does this conciseness allow? Two platforms of reading and writing short-short stories (of 140 characters or less) will be used to examine these questions: Terribly Tiny Tales on Faceboo k and Very Short Story (@veryshortstory) on Twitter