We've all been there: it's 3am at a house party and there's a barista stood next to you shouting excitedly in your ear about the novel he's working on. He hasn't started it, he doesn't know what it's going to be called, but he's "working on it". Then you see him on Twitter, not working on his novel but talking about working on his novel. Annoying, right?

Multimedia artist Cory Arcangel has used the tweets of aspiring-slash-pretending authors to actually finish his new book, Working On My Novel. Arcangel has been collecting tweets containing the phrase since 2011 at his account @wrknonmynovel. Expect to see tweets across the spectrum of hopeful to just plain desperate:

Arcangel's work regularly uses appropriation, whether it's hacking video games, excavating Andy Warhol old computer console illustrations or creating hi-tech art inspired by Kelly Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone". Working On My Novel sticks to those themes of endless recycling, transferring one form of media to create another – and as always, it's pretty funny.

Working On My Novel is being published by Particular Books on 31st July. Order it here.