So one day I had a crazy idea, okay that actually isn’t unusual… Anyway, I was deciding what to tweet and I came across something that was a little bit like an alliteration.  I began to think that it was interesting but not particularly challenging.  So for my next tweet, I decided I would string together as many words as possible that started with the same letter/sound.  I was able to achieve what almost seemed to make sense and use all 140 characters!  Okay, so the way my mind works that was awesome!  I can’t really explain why it was awesome, it just was and so I decided the next day that I would try it again and it has basically become my thing.  I try to string together as many words as I can and still have a meaning behind the tweet.  With that said here are a few of my rules:

1. You have to try to fully use the 140 characters with no more than 10 characters left.  Of course, the closer you get to zero the better.
2. The words actually have to make sense together so just stringing together random words is not twalliteration, it is just noise and twitter + pollution.  In my mind it is prose, a poem of sorts when done properly.
3. You can’t use the same word more than once (preferably not even a derivative of that word if you can avoid it, but sometimes that just doesn’t work out).
4. Under no circumstances can a word start with a different letter (this isn’t alliteration, it is twalliteration).  So, just matching the sound doesn’t actually count like it would with plain old ordinary alliteration.
5. Just because a word starts with the same letter does not mean the sound is right (so it also does not count).  So for instance chair and car don’t both belong in a twalliteration because the sound one makes when pronouncing the two words is different.
6. There should almost always be a hidden meaning behind the twalliteration so not only do the words need to make sense but there should be a backstory to it which could either be public or insider information, that doesn’t matter.
7. If you take less than 10-15 minutes to write the twalliteration then you really better think about it before posting it because it is hard to imagine that it meets all of the criteria.
8. Because you have hopefully used all of the characters, you unfortunately cannot use the hashtag #twalliteration unless it is in a reply to your tweet.
9. If you are into daily twalliteration like I am, you really should avoid using the same letter/sound two days in a row just to keep yourself challenged and your twalliteration skills sharp (ha, I am joking here folks).
10. Slang or urban dictionary words absolutely do count in twalliteration so don’t be afraid to use them, but do be prepared to defend them.

So speaking of the urban dictionary, twalliteration used to be called twitteration.  However, I found out that indeed that had already been taken.  So I tweeted out a request to my followers asking about renaming this technique and my good friend @mykitchensyc and I agreed to go with the new name of twitter + alliteration or twalliteration.

So now, next time you see a tweet about twalliteration or see some strange tweet from me that looks a bit like a tongue twister, you will know what to call it when you retweet it to all of your followers!