In my attempt to find something worthy of blogging about this week, I began to stumble, randomly and haphazardly about the internet, and came upon a very interesting new concept that I couldn't have fathomed, had I not found it! At creativenonfiction.org, the website for the Creative Nonfiction Foundation and their publications, I found among their submission calls a unique one. The call reads, "Can you tell a true story in 130 characters (or fewer)? Think you could write one hundred CNF-worthy micro essays a day? Go for it. We dare you. There's no limit. Simply follow Creative Nonfiction on Twitter and tag your tiny truths with the trending topic #cnftweet. That's it."
My curiosity piqued, I followed a link to their "favorites" of this category (found here), and found a world of fascinating little stories. This is a project that seems quite interesting to me, as it combines the unique elements of Twitter (which, of course, we've been working with in Communications) and the world of creative nonfiction to create a very interesting set of limitations. This set of limitations forces writers to think in terms they obviously would not have to otherwise. I think that it would be quite an interesting experiment to see just how many "micro essays" I might be able to come up with, and I am considering making this concept into a personal project. Of course, this concept works not just for creative nonfiction, but for all types of writing. What kind of stories would any of us write, limited to 130 characters?
I'll give my best shot at coming up with one of these micro-essays here:
#cnftweet 10 years old, he lay sprawled out, arms and legs lazily rest on wood chips, motionless; I worry, tap the glass; he moves. Relief.
So now, tell me what I've written about (if I've done a good job, you should have a basic idea), and see if you can write your own 130-character story.
