Trending: The author using a novel way to tell her story

Some authors have an uneasy relationship with Twitter, with Jonathan Franzen even calling it "the ultimate irresponsible medium". Others, however, are happy to experiment with the social-networking site.

Last Thursday, Jennifer Egan, (below), the author of A Visit from the Goon Squad, began sharing her new short story, Black Box, via The New Yorker's fiction department's Twitter account, @NYerFiction. For 10 nights, the 8,500-word story – based on a Goon Squad character – would betweeted every minute between 8pm and 9pm (EST).

It is fitting, perhaps, that Egan is using Twitter to publish the story because not only was Goon Squad preoccupied with how social networking has affected long-term relationships, but a "visit from the goon squad" (or being suddenly hit by the brutal realisation of time passing) is guaranteed by scrolling down your Twitter feed far enough, peering into your own past.