#OnlyOnTwitter: An authorial bonanza

If you post to Twitter, you’re a writer in your own right. While you may not be writing novels, you’re telling your own stories 140 characters at a time. This week on #OnlyOnTwitter we have a number of posts about writers and writing. From authorial Twitter takeovers to crowdsourcing speechwriting to a Twitter staging of a play— it’s everything from 140 characters to 140,000 words in this week’s edition of #OnlyOnTwitter.

Susan Orlean’s crowdsourced commencement speech
Stumped on a commencement speech, author Susan Orlean asked her Twitter followers for help…and tried out a few ideas on them, too.

Anna Quindlen takes @atRandom on tour
Author Anna Quindlen is currently promoting her new book Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake. She took over her publisher’s Twitter account to document one manic day in the life of an author on her book tour.

“Glengarry Glen Ross” Twitter Bot Theater
In a new experiment in the performing arts, Twitter Bot Theater reenacted the movie adaptation of the famous David Mamet play, “Glengarry Glen Ross”, by having automated accounts tweet the play line-by-line. Here’s a bit of the scene with Blake, played in the film by Alec Baldwin and played here by @theBlake970. (Don’t worry, we picked one of the lines that’s not profanity-laden.)

#DontDoubleMyRate
The White House is encouraging Congress to prevent an increase in federal student loan rates— and they deployed a new hashtag to do it. With #DontDoubleMyRate, the White House has encouraged students and college grads to tweet their support. It’s been a pretty successful campaign, helped significantly by the President’s appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

You missed Zac Efron’s party
Actor Zac Efron held a fan chat to promote his new movie “The Lucky One”. One unlucky fan wanted to throw a party at Zac’s house and found out he might have missed the boat.

A Twitter-powered game of catch
Colorado Rockies pitcher Jeffrey Guthrie was looking for a throwing partner on a lunch break. Local fan and cancer survivor Woody Roseland just happened to have some free time and a glove.