Text-message novel to engage millions

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 writer with the pen-name Qianfuzhang .

The story describes a modern-day extramarital affair and runs to 60 instalments.

Qianfuzhang said he cut the story from 60,000 characters to 4,200 so it could fit the 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?

'It's very tiring writing a text-message novel,' he said. '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 imagination when they see a fish bone.'