I’ve invented a game we could all play on that newfangled social network, Ello. I think this will work on Ello better than on FB or Twitter.
The idea is to write a story, using only 21 words, and post it here as a jpeg image. Then, tag the person or people who inspired you to write that story.
This game is similar to Hemmingway’s challenge of writing a story with only six words. But the six word stories are not as good as the 21 word stories, I think. The six word stories always end up sounding like tabloid headlines. 21 word stories can build a bigger world. Also, by printing the story on a jpeg, writers can also use a little bit of graphic design to help tell their story.
I suppose a 21-word story printed on a jpeg might look like a homemade “meme”. But since Ello doesn’t allow advertising (and, by extension, one may hope, it doesn’t allow clickbait “memes” that serve only to harvest info to be sold by advertisers) maybe it will work there.
I’ll start with this one, which is something I wrote last night as part of a novel I’m working on. This afternoon I happened to notice it was only five lines, with no more than five words per line.
This might be an interesting way to help make Ello into the creative and fun place that FB can no longer be.
Postscript: Follow me on Ello here.