In my last post I announced my hobby of writing micro horror for my twitter feed, @AlexSivier. Trying to make a coherent, evocative, compelling, twisted tale in 140 is not an easy task and needs a lot of creativity and linguistic skill.
The hard limitation forces you to be terse. You can't introduce characters or set a scene, you just have to get right in there with a jab to the face. No time for powerful uppercuts.
For the first handful of stories I wrote, my focus was purely to tell a good story within 140 characters. But since then, I have made it a rule to construct my stories in exactly 140. It is more of a challenge, and thus, more fun.
So here are some tips when writing a story in such a small space.
There are two kinds of tips, one kind for telling good, powerful stories in
such a limited space, and the other kind for keeping the character count
down.
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1) Names
This is the easiest way to control character count. If you have a name in your story and need to reduce it by a character or two, simply choose a different name. Just google "X letter names" and you will find tons.
Aunt Amy had been dead for months but they could always smell her favourite perfume. Until the stench of her rotting corpse grew too strong.
Janice stood over the rapist with a gun to his head. "In your twisted world, 'no' means 'yes'. So let me ask you, shall I pull the trigger?"
You can also do this with numbers, months and days of the week:
He turned back to his five year old daughter and shouted over the chainsaw and screams. "When you're a big girl, I'll buy you your own saw."
9th May 2013 FOR SALE: Time Machine. Never used. Contact Jim on 09054766990 : 10th May 2013 WANTED: Time machine. Contact Jim on 09054766990
2) Synonyms
Sometimes, you might want to use a synonym to alter the character count without altering the meaning. Sometimes the meaning will be changed, but often it is for the better.
It's up to you to find good synonyms, but they are easy to find with a word processor or google.
Here is a list of synonyms one website gave me for "horrible":
grim, mean, awful, cruel, eerie, lousy, nasty, scary, lurid, fairy, sickie, grisly, horrid, unholy, unkind, hideous, heinous, beastly, fearful, ungodly, ghastly, dreadful, gruesome, shocking, shameful, terrible, execrable, abhorrent, appalling, frightful, loathsome, obnoxious, offensive, repellent, repulsive, revolting, horrendous, terrifying, scandalous, abominable, disgusting, detestable, disagreeable
Some are completely unusable (fairy, sickie???) but most could replace the original word without problem and allow me to control the character count easily.
3) Gender and viewpoint
"she" is three characters, "he" is two and "I" is one. Changing the gender or viewpoint is another method of altering the character count. But be careful, it can cause ripples along the story and change it in unpredictable ways.
She never looked in the back when she got into her car. The escaped lunatic was there and he had an axe. It was hers, embedded in his skull.
He never looked in the back when he got into his car. The escaped lunatic was there and he had an axe. It was his, embedded in his skull.
I never looked in the back when I got into my car. The escaped lunatic was there and he had an axe. It was mine, embedded in his skull.
The first of these three versions is the actual story and is 140 characters. It is easy to understand and plays on the "murderous male lunatic vs. vulnerable female" trope to pack its punch.
The second version changes the female to male and completely does not work for many reasons. First it is difficult to understand who the axe belongs to and in whose head it is buried. Second, it is more about two guys fighting rather than flipping the tropes and stereotypes that movies have conditioned us with. And finally it is only 137 characters.
The final version is better than the second, mainly because first person is more of an immediate threat. Also, it is easier to understand. However, that little runt is only 135 characters.
4) Punctuation
Like synonyms, punctuation manipulation is another way of changing character count without changing the meaning too much.
Contractions can useful for taking out characters:
"could not" -> "couldn't" - 1 character difference
"should have" -> "should've" - 2 character difference
"will not" -> "won't" - 3 character difference
The Oxford comma can change character count by 1
"red, white, and blue" -> "red, white and blue"
Warning, sometimes removing this comma can completely change the meaning:
"I had a dream about my best friends, Justin Bieber, and Hitler" -> "I had a dream about my best friends, Justin Bieber and Hitler" Best friends with Bieber and Hitler? Wow!
Related to the Oxford comma, adjective lists use commas but sometimes you can leave them out.
"The sly, dirty, old, man."
"The sly, dirty, old man."
"The sly, dirty old man."
"The sly dirty old man."
These are all fine to use. However, the word "dirty" seems to change meaning from "filthy" to "pervert".
Gerunds can also be used to change character count:
"He smiled as he wiped the knife clean." -> "He smiled, wiping the knife clean." - 4 character difference
You could also leave off the very last period, since it is a tweet
and the end is implied. However, I consider it cheating so I will not do
that, but if you are less pedantic, it is an option.
The enormous, creepy artifact brought back by NASA, with blades and spikes protruding from its surface, was not just alien, it was AN alien.
Carl ran to the toilet and bent over. Four things came out of his mouth: first vomit, then the thing, then a scream, and finally his tongue.
The huge creatures hibernate below ground for thousands of years, but their mating season is near, and when they awake, they will be hungry.
These stories have a lot of punctuation. It is okay be creative and break the rules now and again, as long as it is subtle and not done too much.
5) Self aware stories
Some stories are aware that they are twitter stories, and can actually use that to deliver their punch.
Insanity is an infection that spreads from a diseased mind to a healthy one and germinates. Do you like my stories? Starting to grow on you?
When writing a horror story in 140 characters there isn't enough room for all the details, so I can't tell you the monster is hiding in your
With every keystroke the vicious twitter demons close in. If I can just make it to 140, they will be banished forever ... 137, 138, 139, 14
That last one is only 139 characters, which is exactly the point.
If you think this sentence is false, demons won't come to torture you tonight. Sweet dreams!
This story is one of my earliest, so it is not 140 characters, but it uses reflexivity, of which I have been a fan since I read this book.
This particular tweet is a version of the simplest form: "This sentence
is false." It is a logical paradox and can drive you crazy if you thing
about it too much. Another version is: "The following sentence is
false. The previous sentence is true." Mindblowing eh?
You
can be more subtle with this. A classic example is the scene in
"Labyrinth" where Sarah has to choose between two doors, one with a
guardian who only tells the truth, and one whose guardian always lies.
Great stuff!
6) Sink and Twist
In my early twenties, I went to see "The Sixth Sense" with my girlfriend. It is a classic example of what I call Sink and Twist.
There are two types of horror: terror (sink) and shock (twist).
Terror is about gloom and oppression. It is slow and depressing, more about the horrific situation and its ramifications.
Shock is a what makes you jump, it is sharp and quick, and slaps you hard. It can either be a cheap scare, like a crazed killer jumping out of a cupboard with a loud shrill scream, or it can be an intelligent twist that makes your brain do a backflip.
That's why I think sixth sense was so successful. The Sink was the situation the little boy was in. Seeing horrific things wherever he went. Nobody to turn to, nobody to believe him, nobody to provide comfort and safety. And nowhere to hide, the grotesque ghosts could be anywhere at any time, and no amount of locked doors could keep them out. Chilling thought.
Then comes the Twist it is well known for. People say it was predictable, but I was flipped by it. It was a great setup and a great twist at the end. But there were also many shocks along the way. After the scary, sinking build up, when I saw that girl vomiting in the tent, I actually screamed out loud. Well played Shyamalan, well played.
In micro horror, you don't have the space for a long slow setup. You can't build oppression or dread, but that doesn't mean you can't have Sink. You can leave the reader with a terrible sense of dread at the ramifications of your story.
When hypnotically regressed back to her childhood, she remembered her parents' bodies coming back to life after the monsters crawled inside.
The evil programmer uploaded his enemy into a perfectly real torture simulation and put it in a solar-powered probe in orbit around the sun.
Only Dominick could see and hear the ghosts. They were everywhere. They couldn't touch him, but they could scream in his ears night and day.
Twist is slightly easier, you just take something straightforward and turn it around. In the first half, you build up the reader's expectations of what will happen, then in the second half, you flip it. It may be easier, but it is still difficult to get right.
They brought in the exorcist from next door as a last resort. Little did they know, it was he who was creeping around their house at night.
He took the little girl with the promise of sweets. They found the body a few days later ripped to shreds, but they never did find his head.
The first thing I saw when I woke up was the decapitated head on the pillow next to mine. I am planning on having fun with the body tonight.
7) Using quotes
Using a well-known quote or song title/lyric gives you, the writer, a springboard from which to work, and allows you to paint a scene larger than 140 characters. It also holds the reader's hand and lets you lead them down a path, which makes it all the more powerful when you twist.
Any
sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, but
no technology can banish your soul to the eternal inferno of hell.
This uses a very famous quote from Arthur C. Clarke.
However, this imposes other limits that make it even more challenging: the
character length manipulation had to be done in half a tweet.
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So there you have it. That's my 7 solid tips for writing powerful twitter microhorror and making it fit in 140 characters. I hope you find them useful and if you don't already write twitter stories, I hope you will at least consider it. It is a fun little exercise and doesn't take too long.
If you do write any good stories, let me know either in the comments, or as a public tweet. I am really interested in reading your spinechilling micro horrors. Punch me in the face hard with your twists and imagery.
And if you like my stories, please subscribe, but whatever you do, don't look behind you.
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