The novel is now a set of tweets or SMSes that tell a story when strung together
They had met on the bridge many years ago. And then they were married and bought appliances and had kids. And then the bridge was demolished
There is drinking and flirting and then they’re up in his hotel room and she rips off his shirt and he says, Man, I really liked that shirt.
Jones looked different. He was asked about his hair, his weight, his clothes. So he sent out an email to his colleagues. I’m happy, it said. 

Montreal-based Arjun Basu tweets his new novel, 140 characters at a time.
He is not alone. Other successful authors and bloggers are gradually wiping away the curling-up-with-a-book image, replacing it with tweets, SMSes and blog posts that tell a tale when strung together. The journey of the novel has been a “long” one, from the thick, wordy volumes of once-upon-a-times we fondly pored over to 140-characters-at-a-time musings.

What started out as a rage in Japan, China and Korea, where SMS novels take up most of the bestseller slots, is now gaining a foothold across the globe. In Japan, most of cellphone novels were authored by young women trying to escape the drudgery of everyday life, and giving vent to a creativity that otherwise would have gone unnoticed. Part autobiographical, part fiction, these tales are often revolutionary, literary escapades to break away from conventions and realities that pin them down.

Japan’s first SMS novel was written by a man under the pseudonym ‘Yoshi’. His Deep Love, revolving around the life of a teenaged prostitute, was published in 2003 and subsequently made into a popular television series, a comic series and finally a movie. Then came Love Sky. Written by a young woman called Mika, it was reportedly read by 20 million people on cellphones and computers before it was published as a book and made into a successful movie. The credit for getting young Japan glued to their “ketai” (cell phones) should go to Maho i-Land, the free cell phone novel site which has been read by billions over the years.

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