Short story writer creates short stories every day on X old tweet size 140 characters

‘What about this? You have to give it a grade! Wolf, look!’ Wolf (8) sighed, watching his mother fall into the pool. Did he never get a break? The tent was up, the view was beautiful, and the wine tasted good. Now all that was left was to get that damned blackbird to shut up with its nerve-wracking tune. Bass, like an imposter, used barbecue tongs to keep the garden party goers away from him. He didn’t like barbecues, and he didn’t like socializing even more.

Does that look like a disjointed paragraph? You just read three separate stories. Since August 2015, short story writers have been posting one story a day on X (formerly Twitter), with a maximum of 140 characters. Try it and you’ll see how little that is. No day has been missed, so the account now has about 3,300 stories.

“The author shares the story in our app group by 4pm,” explains freelance journalist and podcast producer Rianne van der Molen (43) as she explains the working method. “Two likes and it’s published. If others don’t understand it or think it’s not strong enough, we give feedback to make the story work.” For real emergencies, there is also a “safe” with backup stories. There are seven authors, each with a fixed day.

Van der Molen has been a member of Kortrijders since 2019, the original members are no longer with us. It all started spontaneously nine years ago, as journalist Franka Hummels (46) recalls. “I just wrote something on Twitter. Then someone said: This is really a story, you have to do something with it,” the co-founder said on the phone. She asked some acquaintances and strangers, and that’s how the short story writer came to be.

For Hummels and others, one thing was and remains important: it had to be a story, as literary as possible. “It’s really a new genre on Twitter that we haven’t seen anywhere else.” In 2017, Twitter doubled the number of characters a tweet can contain to 280, but Short Writers has stuck to the original 140 characters to this day.

“The story is on the street”

They all get their inspiration from other places. “I sometimes listen to conversations on the terrace and think if I can use them for a short break,” says van der Molen. Other sources of inspiration are daily frustrations, what you read in the newspaper or the experiences of the day. “The stories are in the street, you just have to look and have a good imagination,” says Sanne Windey (40), a Dutch teacher and short story writer since 2019. “When I see a shoe lying on the side of the road, I immediately have a story about that.

“Sometimes I walk in the forest for hours, and the best stuff comes from emptiness,” says van der Molen. Wendy has something similar: “Then I go out on Furniture Avenue to write a story. And then my family frowns, haha.” Both unconsciously declare that they always “will” to recognize a story when they come across it.

I stands for “our type of novel”

Self Nuclear Regulatory Commission is also discussed, but is really seen as something different. “120 characters is like a novel to us,” laughs van der Molen. “It’s a completely different way of writing for us.” Wendy agrees: “I’m more of a column, and what we do is actually fiction. Even if it’s taken from real life.”

Short Writers has also been active on the social media platform Bluesky since last year and is currently setting up an Instagram account. “We see X (since its acquisition by Elon Musk) as a kind of death house, so we are considering other platforms,” van der Molen said.

Perhaps the most important challenge: Every sign counts. “I wanted to use quotes recently, but quotes cost another character,” says van der Molen. “Characters usually have short names like Bo or Eva.” Both say writing stories keeps their minds and pens sharp. “Sometimes it’s a shame that the characters are still a little bland and can’t be developed too much among 140 characters,” says Wendy.

Coffee Story Most Popular

The X account currently has more than 6,200 followers, and some of its stories have reached a wider audience through retweets. “We were approached by a coffee brand who wanted to use one of our stories for their ad campaign,” recall Van der Molen and Wendy. Tweet: “What do you really want?” the tea bag said. Robert thought about it and nodded gratefully. He threw the tea in the sink and muttered: “Coffee.” It was the group’s most liked and shared tweet of all time. However, they did not go into business with the company. “We didn’t want to do anything commercial at the time, just keep writing what we wanted to write.”

Ultimately, it’s all about giving readers a good time. “I want to share my love of stories, including short stories, with a wider audience,” Wendy said. The group hopes to create a tear-off calendar in the future.

Shortly after her father died, Wendy recalled a story about how she had long provided informal care for him. “She looked at the regular informal care days on her agenda and hit delete. “These or all the appointments?” the diary asked. She clicked and burst into tears,” X said. “I knew immediately when that happened: that was it,” Wendy said. “Even then you thought so.”

Short story writer It currently consists of Pam van der Veen, Nina Juffermans, Bert Zuidhof, Govrien Oldenburger, Gisèle Mambre, Sanne Windey and Rianne van der Molen.

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