Heyyy 👋 so lyk… ever thot bout writin a 📚 in texteese? 🤔 IMHO itz kinda 🔥 idea. Ppl 2day txt ALL da time, rite? LOL. We luv fast msgs, ez 2 read, no stressss. 😂 So y not 📚 too?
If u write in texteese, u grab ppl fast. 👀 Boom! No boring blah blah. Itz vibey, itz real. Gen Z, Millennials… dey wud TOTALLY vibe wit it. 💯 Plus, texteese = real talk. Itz hw ppl ACTUALLY speak now. U get dat raw, real feel. No stiff grammar rules. Freer, funner, FASTER. 🏎️
Dis style can make 📖 feel light, funny, super close 2 reader. Like u chattin 2 a fren, not preachin. ❤️ And ppl luv dat vibe. Makes em feel SEEN, HEARD. 🔥🔥
BUT… can a texteese 📚 be popular? 🤷♀️ MAYB. Depends. Gotta b smart. Lite texteese, easy 2 get. Not too cray. 😂 Otherwise, readers b like “wtf???” & quit. 😭
Also, story still gotta slap. 🎯 No amt of cool slang saves a lame plot. Good charas, feels, drama? Yesss plz. Then texteese just boosts da fun. 🚀
Maybe best 4 romcoms, teen drama, memes, dark lol humor stuff. Horror n’ fantasy? 🤔 Hmm.. harder. Gotta match da mood, da vibe.
So yeah, itz possible. Gotta b clever wit it. Balance realness + easy readin. If u do it rite? 📈 U cud blow up, fr fr.
TLDR: texteese 📚 = risky but 🔥 if done gud. Bet. 👏
I once floated the idea of writing an entire book in “TEXTESE” to my author group. It came after a lively discussion about how language changes — shorter words, clipped sentences, faster pacing. The days of heavy, winding descriptions seem to be behind us. So I took it a step further and suggested that the natural progression might be writing stories entirely in the shorthand language people use on their phones.
They laughed. Hard.
First, at the absurdity of the leap — the idea that LOLs and “u” instead of “you” could replace the traditional literary form.
Second, at the notion that such a thing could be taken seriously in a literary sense.
Still, I wonder: were they laughing at the idea, or at how uncomfortably close it might be to the future? Language evolves. What once seemed ridiculous often becomes normal with time. Shakespeare’s contemporaries would probably laugh at today’s “proper” English.
Could a book written in TEXTESE be taken seriously? Honestly, I think it could — if done with intelligence and purpose. Why not if it reflects authentic voices, captures real emotions, and tells a compelling story? Form serves story, not the other way around.
-Michael (my novel SEETHINGS is downloadable and free for a limited time. It’s not written in TEXTESE, sorry)
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There are a lot of ‘attempts’ at the style out there – so far, none have taken off, but that may be that the ‘content’ isn’t of value to the reader. Yet.
Hi Cage,
I find having to ‘translate’ slows me down. My brain forces the text to go through a second level of process. That defeats the condensed nature of the language! -Michael
That’s the main reason they don’t do well – you have to know that language fluently to be able to read a whole story. I can read a story in German, but it takes ten times longer (I did the math) because of the mind-mapping of language elements.
I’ve often wondered this myself. I think there’s all sorts of digital mediums out there that are going to become the literature of the future. I’ve often thought that blogs are a good format for serial short stories, like Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes tales were in the serials then.
Hi Naomi,
They say hand-written language is constantly being compressed. Long words become short ones, a mood or emotion becomes a pictogram. Languages like Chinese and Japanese are the result of centuries of compression.
First-generation mobile phones used a numerical keypad to compose words. The lengthy process of writing anything f had us dropping vowels by the hundreds. Next-gen phones offered QWERTY and autocorrect… but by then, our new habits had formed.
I can’t read textese without going slow and translating it (sometimes word by word) to understand the story within. I’m too old to appreciate it. I think younger people would have better access to this style of writing than me. -Michael