The legend goes that Ernest Hemingway was sitting at lunch with some friends, agonizing over the long-winded writers of their day. Hemingway purported that he could write a meaningful story in only 6 words. A $10 wager was collected around the table. Once the bet was in place, Hemingway took to his napkin and wrote:
For sale: baby shoes, never worn.
And thus began the literary genre known as "flash fiction," trying to tell a story with as few word as possible. It has spun into SMITH magazine's 6 Word Memoirs and a few books. AND they have a six-word workbook!
I love six word memoirs, six word stories, six word lists, six word anything! The idea that you can tell a poignant story in only six words is beautiful to me. I hate when I read writing that is too wordy and doesn't get to the point (my main issue with Walt Whitman). This is also what I love about poetry - poems are so short that every word matters, and they must be chosen carefully. When you can only use 6 words, they're even more important.
In the classroom, this a great expressive writing activity, but also a great activity to teach poetry and the importance of choosing words. I integrated this into a creative nonfiction/memoir unit as one of their assignments.
With six word memoirs/stories, students can:
- anonymously vote on their favorite
- create poems
- play a game to match their author
- use it to describe a character in a novel
- create a tweet or Facebook status for a character
- write for a quick bell work activity
- use it as a starting point to create a longer story/memoir
Here are some written by me:
A firefly blooming in a jar
Writer teaches kids; kids teach writer
My needs: love, words, kids, laughter
Book worm falls for nerd boy
The murky sea of present tense
And some of my all-time favorites by others:
Not quite what I was planning.
I'd marry her again and again.
I write; therefore, I lie. Often.
What are some of your favorites six word stories/memoirs?
