written and posted by members of Lancashire Dead Good Poets' Society

Saturday 19 January 2013

#DGPBlog

00:00:00 Posted by Ashley Lister , 2 comments

by Ashley Lister



Ashley R Lister @ashleylister

1m
I was teaching a class on Thursday morning when we began to discuss Twitter as a tool for honing writing skills.




Ashley R Lister @ashleylister
2m
In some ways it's a skill to hone a thought to a limitation as restrictive as 140 characters.


Ashley R Lister @ashleylister
3m
The act of tweeting is a discipline that forces a writer to focus on exactly what needs to be said.



Ashley R Lister @ashleylister
4m
Admittedly, there can be multiple tweets that use far more than 140 characters and still manage to say nothing of value @David_Cameron.



Ashley R Lister @ashleylister
5m
But, just as the respected discipline of haiku can be abused to being nonsensical...




Dead Good Poets @deadgoodpoets
6m
Bees have striped bodies
  Black yellow black yellow black
  Yellow black yellow




Ashley R Lister @ashleylister
7m
...the art of the tweet can be used to impart the remarkable (I have reader's block), the risible (Clegg’s OK) and the retarded (I♥1D).




Ashley R Lister @ashleylister
8m
To practice this discipline, I've made each of the sentences for this blog less than 140 characters.




Ashley R Lister @ashleylister
9m
Some sentences have been easier than others.




Ashley R Lister @ashleylister
10m
And the discipline of writing in tweet length sentences has forced me to focus on content in ways that 'regular' writing will never demand.



Ashley R Lister @ashleylister
11m
I'm not only conscious of spelling and lexical choice and punctuation - I'm even worried about spaces. 




Ashley R Lister @ashleylister
12m
How many other writing disciplines make us think of spaces?




Ashley R Lister @ashleylister
13m
So, my writing exercise for today is simply a call to tweet.




Ashley R Lister @ashleylister
14m
Say something profound if it suits your mood. Say something poetic if you feel able. 




Ashley R Lister @ashleylister
15m
But be conscious that your words are being shaped by the restrictions of the medium.



Dead Good Poets @deadgoodpoets
16m
Include the hashtag #DGPBlog and mention @deadgoodpoets and (if appropriate) we'll retweet your sage words.





2 comments:

Adele said...

I recently bought a book called, Adventures in Form, published by Penned in the Margins.

ISBN978-1-908058-01-0

It has a very interesting chapter on poems using txts, tweets and status updates. Several are written using only numbers and symbols on a mobile. The poems translate when you key in the numbers on T9 predictive text.

I would show you but blogging it may infringe copyright.

unpredictive
by NATHAN PENLINGTON

Unknown said...

Adele,

It sounds like an interesting book. I shall look out for that one.

Ash