Collecting all the Twitter<\/span> posts we did earlier today. If you’re not following the ComicMix Twitter feed<\/a>, tsk tsk tsk…<\/em><\/p>\n \nI have written before about the danger of distractions while writing. And Twitter can become a huge timesink. <\/p>\n \nBut Twitter can also actually help improve your comic writing, if you use it properly and understand how and why. <\/p>\n \nDenny O’Neil had a rule: in a standard six-panel page, there should be no more than thirty-five words per panel. <\/p>\n \nTwo hundred and ten words of dialogue and captions. You have to write tight with no room for error. <\/p>\n \nTwitter forces you to write dense snippets to carry the maximum impact. Poetry in brevity. <\/p>\n \nThe math works; thirty-five three letter words with spaces is one hundred and forty characters. Convenient. <\/p>\n \u00a0Yes, the most common word length is five letters. Err on caution’s side. The discipline’s good for you. <\/p>\n \nIf you must, pretend each tweet is one speaker in a two person conversation. Neither should over-dominate. <\/p>\n \nBesides, you won’t always have a six panel page. Nine panels breaks to twenty-two words each. <\/p>\n \nSo writing short, memorable, natural tweets can help you write comic captions and dialogue. But there are catches. <\/p>\n \nFirst: get in the habit of writing numbers as words. Numerals are rarely used. <\/p>\n \nSecond: no Twitter-speak abbreviations. Write out the full words. Contractions are okay. <\/p>\n \nThird: don’t repeat what the art already tells the reader. Good advice at any time. <\/p>\n \nThere’s a reason a Tweet looks like a word balloon. People already think that way. Use it. <\/p>\n Remember: you can follow all the NaGraNoWriMo posts here<\/a>!<\/em><\/p>\n Be the first person to comment! <\/a><\/p>\n