The initial instalment of the mainland's first serialised text-message novel will be delivered to mobile phones on Friday.
Twice a day for a month, mobile phone service company Beijing Huarry will send subscribers across the country a 70-character episode from the love story Out of the Fortress by a Guangzhou-based columnist and popular novelist who writes under the pen-name Qianfuzhang .
The story describes a modern-day extramarital affair and runs in 60 instalments.
Qianfuzhang said he wrote an unfinished version of the story several years ago but had to cut it from 60,000 characters to 4,200 so it could fit the text-message format.
He said the idea came to him out of the blue. 'Basically, I use messages to contact people when possible,' the writer said. 'There are many interesting messages being sent every day. One day I thought, why can't I use messages to write a novel?'
The author said the process was a departure from traditional writing methods because he had to dispense with lengthy descriptions and dialogue to create a straightforward plot. But at the same time, the work had to have a literary feel.
'It's very tiring writing a text message novel,' he said. 'Just imagine - I had to cut 700 words down to 70 words. I couldn't write a panoramic description of the sea - about the water, the sunrise and the sunset - but readers can use their imaginations when they see a fish bone.'