Her winning tweet in the inaugural BNZ Literary Awards #shortandtweet category was: ''He said he loved the sun so I dressed in yellow. Today I saw him close the curtains.''
At only 18 words long, the Verdon College pupil's entry has netted her an impressive $55.55c per word - not bad for an idea she said ''came from nowhere''.
''Everyone has been asking me where the story came from but I don't really know.
''I haven't tweeted all year - I'm not a regular user at all - but I saw the competition on Facebook and just wrote down what I was thinking,'' she said last Friday.
Ashlyn (18) said she would put the cash towards university study. She plans to study psychology and education at the University of Otago next year with a view to working with children with special needs.
The contest was not age-restricted and entries had to be a maximum of 140 characters, submitted via Twitter.
Among the highly commended entries were. - ''Palms sweaty, her heart racing, slowly she drew her gun. The art teacher laughed and said it looked more like a foam finger.''
''She told them, 'I'm a relaxed and confident person.' She hoped they'd read her CV, but not her blog.''
The awards, formerly the Katherine Mansfield Awards, began in 1959.
BNZ chief marketing officer Craig Herbison said the tweet category was introduced this year to ensure the competition kept up with technology.
''Technology has dramatically changed the way we write, and platforms like Twitter mean we've had to become really concise and succinct.''
