Show Off Your Writing Chops for B.J. Novak in Our Twitter Fiction Contest

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Image: Annie I. Bang/Invision/AP/Associated Press

By Nora Grenfell2014-04-15 19:15:35 UTC

Forget about the Great American Novel. Nowadays, people are arguably more focused on composing the Great Global Tweet, which is not something to be taken lightly. In just 140 characters, you have to communicate intelligence, humor, wit or, ideally, some combination. Some take the next step and compose entire stories in under 140 characters. It's a challenge, but one we think the Mashable community is up for: This month's Twitter Fiction Contest will give you a chance to prove yourself.

Author and comedian B.J. Novak explores a range of human emotions in his debut short story collection, which is also this month's MashableReads selection. One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories is both profound and hilarious, satiric and honest. Novak also challenges the conventional length of short stories; after all, in the 21st century, why does a story have to be any longer than a single tweet?

See also: 38 Gifted Poets on Twitter

Consider this story from One More Thing, "The Walk to School on the Day After Labor Day."

I was sad that summer was over.

But I was happy that it was over for my enemies, too.

Can you write a short story in a single Tweet? Show us your literary skills in this month's MashableReads challenge. Five winners will win signed copies of Novak's short story collection, and two lucky Twitter authors will win a spot in our upcoming Google Hangout and the chance to join in our book discussion with Novak on April 25 at 6:00 pm ET.

How to Enter:

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  Tag your short story tweets with the hashtag #MashReads.

  
  


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  Each short story must be contained in a single tweet. No story may be longer than 140 characters (including #MashReads).

  
  


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  You can submit up to five stories (five tweets). Any additional submissions will not be judged.

  
  

We'll also be retweeting some of our favorite pieces of Twitter fiction from @mashlifestyle over the next two weeks. Don't forget to watch our Google hangout with B.J. Novak and join the online MashableReads discussion on Goodreads and Facebook.

You can find the official contest rules here.

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Topics: bj novak, community, Lifestyle, MashableReads, MashReads, Twitter, Work & Play