Nick Warren, of the blog Restless Voices (“Very short stories. Daily.”) is running a Twitter-based contest — stories written in 140 characters (amusing that you can interpret his invitation — “Fancy writing a 140-character story?” — as a story with 140 characters, as in people.). Here’s the skinny:

Fancy writing a 140-character story? If enough people are game I’m going to set up the simple competition below. Let me know if you are in, or tell your creative friends.

Here’s how I reckon it will work:

Confidential story submissions to @nickwarren via Twitter DM. Deadline: 6pm, Thurs 19th Feb.

All stories posted to public Story140 web page, by midnight. Page published and voting begins.

Votes to @nickwarren via Twitter DM. One vote per Twitterer. Deadline. 6pm, Friday 20th February.

Results published by Midnight, Friday 20th February.

All times are GMT. And no, I won’t be submitting a story for obvious reasons.

The stories will be posted uncredited to avoid obvious bias, and we’ll rely on the honour of storytellers to promote the vote without giving away which contribution is theirs. Once the results are in we’ll credit which of the stories and name the top three.

It’s just an excuse for five minutes of utterly non-commercial creativity, and to see what the community can do. I reckon we need a minimum of ten people to make it interesting, but more is better

The winner gets to bask in the warmth and admiration of fellow Twitterers.