Twitter Writing Contest: Win an IPod Nano For the Best 140 Character Story

by Brian Clark

Twitter

The Twitter Writing Contest is Now Closed. Thanks to everyone who submitted an entry, and winners will be announced Friday, May 30.

Can you tell a story in exactly 140 characters?

That’s the idea behind the first ever @copyblogger Twitter writing contest.

It should be a great exercise and a lot of fun. Being constrained to exactly 140 characters will spark your creative juices and force you to focus stringently on word choice, sentence structure, and even punctuation.

Here’s an example that I tweeted over the weekend:

Three flies are bugging me on the deck. I kill two, and spare the third. “Go tell the others this is what happens,” I warn as he buzzes off.

OK, so that’s a bit of a goofy spoof on Keiser Soze from The Usual Suspects. But it’s still a mini-story that allows the reader’s imagination to run with it.

Did I go hunt down the other flies along with their families and neighbors?

Or did the flies retaliate Amityville Horror style?

See, it is fun. And it’s great for sharpening your writing skills, too.

But of course, we aren’t always motivated by what’s good for us. So, let’s add in another incentive.

Whoever writes the best Twitter story (as determined by me and a couple of other Twitteriffic judges) will win an IPod Nano 4 GB from Amazon in your choice of available colors. Plus, you’ll have bragging rights as the winner of the first-ever Twitter writing contest (at least that I know of).

Ready to play?

Just post a link to your Tweet (one per person, please) in the comments to this post before 5:00 PM CST on this Friday, May 23, 2008. That’s all there is to it, but remember…

It’s not 140 characters or less, it’s exactly 140 characters. Cool?

P.S. If anyone out there wants to contribute additional prizes for the winner, or for second and third place, email me and we’ll sweeten the pie.

P.P.S. Out of fairness, Copyblogger regular contributors are not eligible to win, but encouraged to play along any way.

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