Writers invited to submit short stories on Twitter

Project Pen and Inches Social Media Solutions are co-launching the region’s first Twitter Stories competition this month. The November 5-30 competition challenges writers in the region to tell a story in 140 characters or less on Twitter, exploring new forms of storytelling in both English and Arabic, the organisers said in a statement e-mailed to The Jordan Times. To participate, interested individuals must tweet their stories using the hashtag, #ProjectPen. Entries will be judged by a panel consisting of prominent bloggers, Project Pen organisers and Inches Solutions representatives based on the criteria of story creativity, completeness and clarity. One English and one Arabic winning entry will be chosen every week during the competition, while two grand-prize winners — one from each language — will be announced at the end of the fourth week, the statement said. All competition entries will appear on Project Pen’s website, www.projectpen.me/twitterstories. “Twitter Stories is a digital storytelling project open to anyone on Twitter who has a story to tell and has a way with words,” the statement quoted Project Pen Founder John Lillywhite as saying. “People tell stories on Twitter all the time. The idea behind the competition is to promote Twitter as a space for the imagination and to inspire young people to create new kinds of stories in 140 characters or less,” Lillywhite added. “Jordan enjoys a wealth of untapped creative talents,” Laith Al Adham, director of Inches Solutions, said, according to the statement. “As part of our support to the initiative, Inches Social Media Solutions will be moderating submitted entries, monitoring the material for appropriateness and handling all social media aspects of the competition,” Adham added. Weekly prizes include JD20 book vouchers from Wide:Screen, while the grand prize is an iPad for the best English and Arabic “Twitter story” from Umniah. All prizes will be awarded to the winners at the Twitter Stories tweet-up event slated for early December at Veranda Lounge. Upon the competition’s conclusion, a free e-book containing the submitted entries will be distributed online, according to the organisers. From The Jordan Times