Telling a story in 140 characters or less

New York, June 20: Arjun Basu writes short stories. Very short stories."I`m doing 140-character stories on Twitter," said Basu, one of scores of authors, poets and other creative types who are downsizing their literary talents to the limited format of the hot micro-blogging service.

"I call them Twisters because everything on Twitter has a stupid name," the 42-year-old Basu said at the 140 Characters Conference, a two-day talkfest devoted to all things Twitter held in New York this week. "Each story has a beginning, a middle and an end," said Basu, a Canadian, who readily acknowledges that he has developed a greater following on Twitter than for his more traditionally published works. "I`m now at over 6,000 followers on Twitter," the Montreal-based Basu said. "I published a book of short stories last year and that was with a small press so maybe 2,000 people bought the book. "So I have more readers now than I used to." Basu, whose Twitter handle is @arjunbasu, said he began writing the Twisters last year. "I started with one story. I had an image in my head and I just did it," he said. "And I slowly built up a following." Bureau Report