The Power of 140 Characters

People have a love/hate relationship with Twitter – it’s either the best thing since sliced bread, or it’s a blight upon the landscape.

But Twitter is also instructive. There’s something intriguing, challenging and oddly charming about its forced economy of language.
140 characters, the limit of a Twitter post, fill up fast. Hamlet’s soliloquy screeches to a halt right around “outrageous fortune.”

Holden Caulfield’s opening line gets cut off mid-word just as he’s discussing what his “lousy childhood was li…”

But ******ens just might have rocked it. “Marley was dead, to begin with.”

And Virginia “Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself” Woolf probably would have had her moments.

Writing tweets hones your ability to pack serious info into small bites. It forces you to clarify your point and cut to the bone.

(But don’t go past the bone. Never force someone to decipher symbols, tease out abbreviations or buy vowels just to follow along.)

Short, meaningful sentences have power. They never let you down, so try conveying your next message in 140 characters, just for sport.

You don’t have to post it and pile on to the already blighted landscape, if that’s your opinion. But you might just be tempted.

Like I was writing this article. All its paragraphs clock in at 140 or less.  Which reminds me: varying sentence length is important, too. 

Want more examples of the Twitterization of literature, opera and even recipes? Check out this NPR piece.

Barbara Govednik launched 423 Communication in 2001 to helps its clients tell their stories through freelance writing services, coaching and editing services, and employee communication consulting and implementation. Read Barbara’s Being Well Said Blog.