July 16, 2009
“It is with words as with sunbeams. The more they are condensed, the deeper they burn." --Robert Southey, English poet, 1774-1883
I was reading through an AARP magazine recently (and yes, I admit I am old enough to be a subscriber) when I discovered an article with an intriguing title, "Really Short Stories, in half a dozen words" by Larry Smith.
How can anyone write a story in six words, I wondered. Impossible, I decided.
Reading on, I learned that Ernest "Papa" Hemingway was once asked to do just that, tell a story in six words. As the story goes, Hemingway wrote, "For sale: baby shoes, never worn."
His powerful and fascinating story in just six words brings all sorts of possible scenarios immediately to mind. How did he choose exactly those six words and how could we write our own-six-word stories if we tried? Turns out, it is not so easy.
Give it a whirl yourselves; lots of folks have already tried. In fact, AARP The Magazine is currently challenging readers to do just that on its website.
Incidentally, six-word story telling started some time ago when Smith Magazine challenged readers to tell their life stories in six words. Harper Perennial later published favorite submissions in " Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous & Obscure." Currently, websites such as sixword memoirs.com and smithmagazine.net are still encouraging readers to submit their own six-word life stories.
Here are some of my favorites from Smith Magazine and AARP The Magazine .
Nearing 60, still on rough draft. I wear orange socks with red. Degree in programming, now I bake. Knocked on my door, never left. What scares me, I'm considered above-average. I still make coffee for two. Sour grapes just need more sunshine. Like it or not, I'm twittering.
There are tens of thousands of such six-word stories, and all leave me with searing questions as I try to imagine what the real life story behind each of these is.
The joy. The pathos. The humor. The pain.
Although I know better and for one fleeting moment, I did indeed entertain the thought that writing six-word stories would be easy. But, as any writer knows, writing short is exceedingly difficult.
Stumped after a few attempts, I asked my third-grader grandson for help. Halen and I agreed that ten words instead of six would do just fine for our experiment. Without flinching and in a blink, he created these 10-worders:
"I like to shoot at hoops while watching flowers droop."
"Playing baseball rocks especially in your long-colored socks."
"I'd like to have a maid get my Gatorade!"
A word of warning: it takes time to write short, lots of time unless you are a third-grader.
To write concisely as Thomas Jefferson once said, "... is the most valuable of all talents."
And William Shakespeare, in Hamlet , was the master of succinctness when he penned this famous six-worder, "Brevity is the soul of wit!"
To which I add: "So, I'll sign my name and quit."
But wait, that was seven words. I'll try again.
"Six worders, no piece of cake!"
Ta Da!
