Calling Home: A Plurk and Twitter Science Fiction Story
I love Social Media. I’m on at least five different services and spend way more time than I should on them, but I enjoy it considerably and have befriended many great people. With as much enjoyment as I get out of these services I thought it would be great if could combine together two things I feel passionately about: Social Media and Writing Fiction.
But how do you develop a story in only 140 character bite sized morsels? You could write a longer piece and serialize it, or you could even write Flash Fiction which thrives in such small spaces. Also, how do you develop characters in serialized stories when you use one account for both posting and comments? I felt all those approaches left much to be desired. What I wanted to see was a story, using Social Media where one character interacts with another using separate accounts. And what’s more, I wanted the story to be science fiction.
The big problem with writing science fiction or fantasy is you usually need quite a bit of space to build your world and have your characters explore it. Could this be done in 140 character pieces and still be a compelling read? My answer is yes it can. And the way to do it is by telling the entire story in dialogue.
Dialogue is powerful. It’s one of the best tools a writer has in their arsenal to convey emotion and feeling. Think of the last novel or story you read. What were the parts which moved you the most? It was when the characters were speaking. The author manipulated the words coming from the character into a stream of emotional strength. You knew how the character was feeling because they told you so in their own voice.
With this in mind, the idea for Calling Home popped into my mind. A story entirely told within the confines of a damaged ship’s system status messaging and emails. Each character would have their own Twitter and Plurk account, and communicate with each other through those accounts only.
After some refinement of the idea, I’m proud to announce I have started posting the individual Plurks and Tweets for the story. Here is where you can get information on how to follow the story: http://tinyurl.com/CallingHome
This story will run for at least a couple of months, so feel free to follow and see what happens to our characters in the deep reaches of space. For the time being, there will be twice daily updates, however that could change as things progress in the story. Read and you’ll find out why….
Lastly, if you enjoy the story please tell your friends about it and spread the word on any other Social Media services you’re on. If you’d like to see it posted to another Social Media service then email me and I’ll look into it.
Enjoy the story!
R. Alexander Spoerer
http://www.renegadesanctuary.com
But how do you develop a story in only 140 character bite sized morsels? You could write a longer piece and serialize it, or you could even write Flash Fiction which thrives in such small spaces. Also, how do you develop characters in serialized stories when you use one account for both posting and comments? I felt all those approaches left much to be desired. What I wanted to see was a story, using Social Media where one character interacts with another using separate accounts. And what’s more, I wanted the story to be science fiction.
The big problem with writing science fiction or fantasy is you usually need quite a bit of space to build your world and have your characters explore it. Could this be done in 140 character pieces and still be a compelling read? My answer is yes it can. And the way to do it is by telling the entire story in dialogue.
Dialogue is powerful. It’s one of the best tools a writer has in their arsenal to convey emotion and feeling. Think of the last novel or story you read. What were the parts which moved you the most? It was when the characters were speaking. The author manipulated the words coming from the character into a stream of emotional strength. You knew how the character was feeling because they told you so in their own voice.
With this in mind, the idea for Calling Home popped into my mind. A story entirely told within the confines of a damaged ship’s system status messaging and emails. Each character would have their own Twitter and Plurk account, and communicate with each other through those accounts only.
After some refinement of the idea, I’m proud to announce I have started posting the individual Plurks and Tweets for the story. Here is where you can get information on how to follow the story: http://tinyurl.com/CallingHome
This story will run for at least a couple of months, so feel free to follow and see what happens to our characters in the deep reaches of space. For the time being, there will be twice daily updates, however that could change as things progress in the story. Read and you’ll find out why….
Lastly, if you enjoy the story please tell your friends about it and spread the word on any other Social Media services you’re on. If you’d like to see it posted to another Social Media service then email me and I’ll look into it.
Enjoy the story!
R. Alexander Spoerer
http://www.renegadesanctuary.com
Comment
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Comment by R. Alexander Spoerer on August 13, 2008 at 6:36am -
That is a great idea to use social media as an extension for a published work. as far as Calling Home goes though, the characters themselves aren't on the same ship. One will be on the ship and the others are in more of a ;mission control" type setting, What I wanted to do with Twitter and Plurk is use them as if they were medium of transmission. In the case of the character on a ship, she's not using social media, she just happens to be using a communication system that normal transmits short bursts of status information and modified it so she can send messages on it. As the story progresses more will be explained. It's a bit harder to lay everything out when you're only using dialogue.
Thanks for the comment!
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Comment by Jon Gambrell on August 12, 2008 at 5:25pm -
An interesting concept, but a little confusing to follow so far. I'll keep watch for a bit to see if things evolve. I do like the idea, but it's hard to picture Twitter and Plurk being the only method of communication on a ship.
I think social networks could be very well suited as a companion to an actual fictional story. Give the characters a 'real' online presence, having actual social media accounts that are mentioned in passing during the story. With communications and media shared between the characters that might seem confusing out of context but come together if you read the story.
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