The literary-minded among us have heard that urban legend of Ernest Hemingway’s shortest story ever told: “For sale, Baby shoes, Never Worn.”

In college, I had a literature professor riff short stories on Twitter, 120-character tweets as either stand-alone stories or serial “chapters.” In that sense, microfiction is nothing new — but writing microfiction through mobile push alerts sure is.

That’s what startup Serial Box is launching with Microfiction Mondays, a new initiative releasing 150-character or fewer short stories out to app users every week. The sample push notices Serial Box posted online read more like writing prompts than a full-circle piece, but we can’t all be Hemingway — maybe this is an option to get those left-brain creative juices flowing. 

I just downloaded the app after tech author Mo Collins flagged the story for me. It seems like a great way to test-drive the app’s service, and a creative kick to keep users’ eyes on the developer’s notifications.