Twisteries: A Mystery in 140 Words

Yesterday, I read about a guy who's using Twitter as a dieting tool. Every day, he publicly posts his weight to keep himself accountable. It seems to be working - he set out to lose 25 pounds, and he's nearly reached 75. Those 140-character posts offer so much opportunity, and the ways to harness them are seemingly endless.

Take crime writer R.N. Morris. When he first set up shop on Twitter, he ran a serialization of his 2007 novel, The Gentle Axe. Three years later, he calls it an insane endeavor and admits he's not sure why he did it. He then turned to more traditional tweets - his lunch, shoutouts, replies to other tweets. But the storyteller in him reared its head once again, and Morris turned that blank box into his new writing outlet. But instead of being limited by the 140-character limit, he embraced it, and began composing 140-character mysteries, which he calls Twisteries. Here's his latest:

His wife was next door when he was killed. A blow to the head; bloody marble bust nearby. Neighbours heard Mahler 8.

His followers then try to solve the Twistery, the solution to which Morris later posts. (The solution to the above Twistery is here.) Since the solution isn't limited to 140 characters, it allows Morris to flesh out a proper story complete with characters, which is exactly what he does best. So clever. 

You can keep up with his Twisteries at his Twitter here.