This week, Margaret Atwood participated in the #TwitterFiction festival and wrote an original short story, "FILM PREVIEWS ON A PLANE: THE HELPFUL SUMMARIES," while she was traveling on a plane.
The author explained in an introductory tweet that she wrote this found object story “made of the descriptors culled from previews of plane movies.”
OK #TwitterFiction, here we go. It's a found object made of the descriptors culled from previews of plane movies. I wrote it on a plane. :)
And here it is:
The title: FILM PREVIEWS ON A PLANE: THE HELPFUL SUMMARIES. #TwitterFiction
Is there an old Italian villa? #TwitterFiction
Have dark secrets followed you?
Is there an adorable Dalmatian? Is there a handsome widower? ##
Perhaps there is an unstoppable force of terror! Perhaps there is a one-man weapon! Perhaps I will be forced to be viciously happy!
# Is it brash? Will it collide?
Is it a true identity?
Is it a paramilitary?
Atwood even humorously described when she took quick breaks from writing.
(Pause to get a coffee. This is not part of the found object. :] ) NB the gold standard for #TwitterFiction is Jennifer Egan's "Black Box."
(And if anyone deserves a cup of decent coffee...it's Margaret Atwood.)
(FEH this is pretty bad coffee.) (I resume the found object.) #TwitterFiction
Now back to FILM PREVIEWS ON A PLANE:
The found object resumes: #TwitterFiction Is it a radical fugitive?
Is it out of control? ## #TwitterFiction
Oh no, the crazed love is infamous! Oh no, there is a crash-land infiltration! #TwitterFiction
Oh no, there are two warped cave attacks! #TwitterFiction
Oh no, there is a moral corporation! #TwitterFiction. (Note: It's a movie. Anything's possible, right?)
But what is this? A would-be writer! #TwitterFiction
And look: here's an opulent spiraling! #TwitterFiction
Here is greed on the run, and lethal radar! #TwitterFiction
Here is also a virus motorcycle! #TwitterFestival
Seriously, these writing breaks became just as important to the story as every other tweet.
(Pause to take vitamin pills. Without them I'd shrivel into dust like Rider Haggard's SHE.) (Not part of #TwitterFestival found object.)
#TwitterFiction found object concludes: Traverse!
Track down! #TwitterFiction
Foul-mouthed! #TwitterFiction
Jeapordize! #TwitterFiction
Ruthless! ## #TwitterFiction
Next. Previous. Previous. Next. #TwitterFiction
Pause. ## #TwitterFiction
Play. ### #TwitterFiction
~ The End ~
Thus concludes the #TwitterFiction found object, FILM PREVIEWS ON A PLANE: THE HELPFUL SUMMARIES. Assemble by observing line breaks. And..
After she was done writing, Atwood asked readers to write stories of their own with her found phrases.
#TwitterFiction: ... your challenge! Write a story using all of the found phrases. Or even some. Or even one! Over to you, and...
... #TwitterFiction... and 'bye now, as I must get on a train. Where there are nooo movies. But maybe a handsome widower.. NO. Censored.
Happy reading...and writing!
