Ars Technica just published an interesting overview of ‘byte-sized’ stories that explores the possibilities of using microblogging as a story telling medium. Ryan Paul, the author, mentioned brave new fiction (thanks Erica!):

A much grander test of the microstory concept is taking place at Brave New Fiction, a proof-of-concept web application that allows writers to compose entire stories with one 140-character line every day. Erica Naone, an assistant editor at MIT Technology Review with whom I discussed microblogging several months ago, is one of the many participants who is writing a nifty story at Brave New Fiction.

We just participated in the Seattle Google App Engine Hack-a-thon and it’s renewed our interest in working on the platform (where brave new fiction is currently hosted). Since there are still some glaring holes in the app engine framework, and since the Google rep at the hack-a-thon hinted very strongly that more languages would be supported ’soon,’ I am still reluctant to devote much time and effort into developing brave new fiction in it’s current form. Also, our client work has reached an all-time high so time to devote to bnf is at a premium.

But it is very exciting and hard to resist pouring everything into brave new fiction when people are using it and talking about it! If you’re interested in helping us with development of the site, give me a hollar at brit @ figaro interactive dot com and we can talk!

Hey neat, Shaun just told me that bravenewfiction.com is now one of Google App Engine Editor’s Picks!

Whew, well after a few nights of diving right into App Engine, I’m proud to announce a little demo I put together: brave new fiction.  The site is inspired by a contest copyblogger.com recently had where writers were forced to create a story in exactly 140 characters.  I loved the idea, and the results were amazing.

I decided to use that contest a basis for brave new fiction.  The constraints are a little different: 140 characters or less per line, 1 line a day is published.  This means your story is told in 140 characters a day – can you keep you audience interested?

The concept and implementation are a little rough around the edges, but like I said, this was just a technology demo for google app engine.  Overall, app engine was amazing to work with.  I had no prior experience with python or GAE (obviously) but the entire application took about 16 hours to create from start to finish.  All of that is attributed to both python and GAE, I can’t say enough about either.

Anyways, if you’re interested – bravenewfiction.com.  Check it out!