SoA launch short story 'tweetathon'

For five weeks starting on Wednesday 14 September, twitter will see one short story a week ‘tweeted’ in five lines.

One week at a time, Simon Brett, Neil Gaiman, Joanne Harris, Ian Rankin and Sarah Waters will take turns offering first lines on twitter. Those following the SoA are being invited to contribute the following four lines to complete each story in 670 characters.

Tweeting will start at 11am and finish at 4pm, with the best lines will being selected every hour and the resulting short story being published on the SoA website. 

Each week’s writer and first line will be announced every Wednesday morning, starting with Ian Rankin on 14 September.

The ‘tweetathon’ was created to draw attention to the Radio 4 short story cuts, despite the resurgence of popularity in the short story form. Ian Rankin said of his involvement in the project: “I got my real start with short stories on R4; I would hate for future generations of writers not to have the same chance.”

Nicola Solomon, General Secretary of the SOA, said:
“We are concerned not only at the loss of half the short story slots but also at the proposed new timing: up to two years ago and for almost the last 40 years there were opportunities to hear the short story every weekday on Radio Four. Under the new plans the only weekday offering would be at 3:45pm on a Friday. We believe that it will be difficult to give sufficient impact to the short story when the scheduling is so piecemeal. The tweetathon is a contemporary celebration of the continuing power and appeal of the short story.”

For more information on the campaign see the SoA website here.

So far 6,500 people have signed the petition against the Radio 4 short story cuts, if you’d like to sign it, click here.

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