I set out to write this Twitter book with Dom and we started writing some things down. I took a different approach and began writing entire chapters in a few hours so we have some raw text to work with. Joking around with Dom over coffee and I brought up that after 34,500 twitter posts (tweets), I may have started writing sentences in under 140 characters. I did some testing in Microsoft Word and it’s true. My sentences in the book are 90% under 140 characters.
This is very interesting to me as I didn’t try to do this and after 2 years on Twitter it’s just how I write. I may work to making the Twitter Book a 140 character book. Sentences written under 140 characters and no more than 140 pages. We’ll see but in the meantime I’m going to try to get my tweets under 120 characters so I’ll have room for hashtags and retweets. 
That is fascinating, Adam! I should do a similar test, I’m sure I’ll find the same thing. It would be an interesting exercise to write the whole thing in tweetable sentences. This could help us focus and make The Book more quotable.
That is fascinating, Adam! I should do a similar test, I’m sure I’ll find the same thing. It would be an interesting exercise to write the whole thing in tweetable sentences. This could help us focus and make The Book more quotable.
Well, reading your post I thought your conclusion a bit disturbing, and that needed some deeper checking.
My first objection would be that for your conclusion to be valid, you needed to be sure that before using twitter your sentences were longer than now.
Also, in twitter you mostly say something to someone a bit like when you talk, which can be rather different than in a book. But of course that depends a lot on the kind of book.
One can assume that in a novel, with descriptive text and not only dialogues, sentences might be a little longer.
So I decided to check. Since I have not much much time, I only checked with one text, and it had to be english, because of the huge differences between languages (french sentences are longer most of the time, for instance).
The text I used is “The Adventure of Tom Sawyer” by Mark Twain, that can be found there : http://www.gutenberg.org/files/74/74.txt
There are about 5575 sentences, with 4989 sentences under 140 characters (meaning 140 or less)
That shows that about 89.4% of Mark Twain sentences are twittable.
Well, at least in his case, this is not due to the habit of using twitter
Well, reading your post I thought your conclusion a bit disturbing, and that needed some deeper checking.
My first objection would be that for your conclusion to be valid, you needed to be sure that before using twitter your sentences were longer than now.
Also, in twitter you mostly say something to someone a bit like when you talk, which can be rather different than in a book. But of course that depends a lot on the kind of book.
One can assume that in a novel, with descriptive text and not only dialogues, sentences might be a little longer.
So I decided to check. Since I have not much much time, I only checked with one text, and it had to be english, because of the huge differences between languages (french sentences are longer most of the time, for instance).
The text I used is “The Adventure of Tom Sawyer” by Mark Twain, that can be found there : http://www.gutenberg.org/files/74/74.txt
There are about 5575 sentences, with 4989 sentences under 140 characters (meaning 140 or less)
That shows that about 89.4% of Mark Twain sentences are twittable.
Well, at least in his case, this is not due to the habit of using twitter
Cool concept. I’m looking forward to seeing the final book.
As a writer, I think Twitter has helped me become less wordy. Can’t back it up with science, but I’ve noticed a change.
Cool concept. I’m looking forward to seeing the final book.
As a writer, I think Twitter has helped me become less wordy. Can’t back it up with science, but I’ve noticed a change.
Or less then 140 chapters?
Or less then 140 chapters?
I’ve noticed the same thing! When I SMS, I have more characters available, but I’m intuitively aware now of when I’ve hit 140. I talk in my social media seminars about how much more succinctly I write since Twitter, too.
I’ve noticed the same thing! When I SMS, I have more characters available, but I’m intuitively aware now of when I’ve hit 140. I talk in my social media seminars about how much more succinctly I write since Twitter, too.
I love it. As Seth Godin would say, small is the new big. Keep it simple.
I love it. As Seth Godin would say, small is the new big. Keep it simple.
As Blaise Pascal once said, “If I had more time, I’d have written a shorter letter.” Consequently, Twitter supports my leisurely thoughts.
As Blaise Pascal once said, “If I had more time, I’d have written a shorter letter.” Consequently, Twitter supports my leisurely thoughts.
140 characters book. Be sure to have only 140 characters sentences. 140 pages w/ one sentence p/pg with a font size 140pt.
That could be the idea on how the book is designed. I can design layout for it. Love the concept. Good luck. M
140 characters book. Be sure to have only 140 characters sentences. 140 pages w/ one sentence p/pg with a font size 140pt.
That could be the idea on how the book is designed. I can design layout for it. Love the concept. Good luck. M
Interesting. Besides Word, are there any tools out there that say help you evaluate a big chuck of stuff to ready it for a Twitter stream for example?