Brevity is difficult. It’s hard enough having to “cull” our stories to make them tighter, what about doing it in only 140 characters?

Well, Manoj Pandey can. And he invited the world to join him when he created Tales on Tweet, which has gone from India to international, garnering the attention of some of the top writers in the world, including Salman Rushdie, Shashi Tharoor, Margaret Atwood and Roger Smith.

Here are some of their stories:

She died. He followed her into the underworld. She refused to return, preferring Hades. It was a long way to go to be dumped.  –Salman Rushdie

Gandhi saw the misery of Partition & broke his vow of silence. He wept.  –Shashi Tharoor

Drunk, Bell shot his wife and kid. Turned the gun on himself but survived. Blind when they gave him the chair, he smelled his flesh burning.  –Roger Smith

Red footprint, white footprint. An axe in the snow. But no body. Was a large bird involved? He scratched his head and made notes.  –Margaret Atwood

Elsewhere, others have also experimented with Twitter as a medium to tell their stories. The New Yorker recently published “The Black Box“, a short story by  Pulitzer Prize winner Jennifer Egan (A Visit to the Goon Squad), on Twitter in instalments. @140novel tells a story over several months. The Story So Far lets you suggest and vote on the next line of the story.

Tales on Tweet will soon release a limited edition book featuring 140-character tales from some of the best-known authors around. Meanwhile, how good are you at mixing story with brevity? If you’d like to submit a brief burst of genius, follow @TalesOnTweet and post a twitter tale, using the hashtag #talesontweet.

Shannon Evans

Shannon Evans, originally from Florida, moved to London in December 2011. Her idea of a perfect Friday evening involves a book and a cup of tea, and her favourite book of all time is Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis.

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Manoj Pandey Margaret Atwood micro fiction Roger Smith Salman Rushdie Shashi Tharoor Tales on Tweet Twitter Twitter stories