Hashtagged Lit: How to Find Things to Read on Twitter

Back in March, just after this blog first started, John posted about the #haiku hashtag on Twitter. For those who missed that post or are new here and still aren't familiar with the insider terminology of the popular microblogging and chat site, a hashtag is a crude form of metadata by which Twitter users tag tweets with a topic. Those searching for such a topic can then easily find the tweet marked with that hashtag. For example, those who wish to read the steady stream of haiku poetry being produced on Twitter can run a search algorithm including the "#haiku" hashtag, and all the tweets marked with it will come up in that reader's search results.

Haiku isn't the only literary format suited to the 140 characters that Twitter has set as its limit. Recently, I've begun following other users who are quite adept at a similar Japanese form of poetry known as tanka.
Tanka predates haiku and is, perhaps, considered even more of an art form in Japan. Like the better-known haiku, tanka is based on syllable count, using the metrical pattern of 5-7-5-7-7. Although longer than haiku, many tanka still end up within the 140-word limit of Twitter, with enough room to spare for the "#tanka" hashtag.

Also common are tweets containing microfiction--very short stories that fit into a single tweet. There are a number of Twitter-based "magazines" (such as @thaumatrope, @outshine, and @tweetthemeat), which accept stories through the traditional submission process, but many writers on Twitter "freelance" their work; that is to say, they simply write a tale and tweet it out for their followers to read. If you'd care to read some of these freelancers, you can search Twitter for the hashtag #vss, which stands for "very short fiction." Not all people use it, but there are enough who do that you shouldn't have trouble finding new works on a daily basis.

There are other hashtags on Twitter, I'm sure, but I haven't found any yet that are used as widely and consistently as #haiku, #tanka, and #vss. If you know of any, please comment on this post. I, for one, would be quite glad to expand my enjoyment of twit lit.