Maybe we’re witnessing the effects of the Twitter generation. Maybe our fabled short attention span has spilled over into the ways we communicate. Whatever the case, short is here to stay. Beyond the 140 characters which force marketers to thoughtfully edit and social media managers to choose their words wisely, the mini movement has picked up steam and is the literature world’s hottest craze.
100 Word Story is one of many which seem to be hoping on the Twitterature bandwagon. The site encourages writers to tell their best stories using only 100 words. Filled with photo prompts and legitimately great writing, 100 Word Story tackles the challenge of using limited resources to create something compelling, humorous and even beautiful. The interactive and social setup of 100 Word Story lends itself to being something writers of all skill sets can feel comfortable participating in. And today’s flash storytellers are following ink grand tradition. Hemingway, Carver and Hemple could surely stand as solid examples that sometimes not only is less more, but also that less is magic. Flashquake, Flash Fiction Magazine and FastForwardPress are just a few of the other sites which publish micro masterpieces.
From a copywriter and marketer point of view, the flash fiction craze is an intriguing one. Marketers, even before the hatching of Twitter, have been put to the task of creating effective messages using limited words. Flash fiction simply ups the ante by asking us to create good stories with scarce verbiage. We’ve found writing 100-word pieces can help us get more concise and clear with what we want to say to our readers, clients and followers. Business bloggers and social media managers, we think, could get a lot out of this practice, as well.
So, dear readers, we’ll keep this short: Do you think this explosion in quickie content creation limits our expression or forces us to get more creative? Sound off (in 100 words or less) in the comments section below!
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