Legend has it that Hemingway was challenged to write a story in only six words.
His response? "For sale: baby shoes, never worn."
In 2006 SMITH magazine teamed with Twitter for a six-word memoir contest. The response was huge, and led to a book that was released in February 2008.
Here are a few examples of the amazingly vivid and insightful stories that can be told with six words:
"Nobody cared, then they did. Why?"
"Fifteen years since last professional haircut."
"I still make coffee for two."
"I'm ten, and have an attitude."
See more here.
Heather Dunphy
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Comments (8)
Hi Heather,
Thanks for posting about this. I did come across the book recently, flipped through it in the store...and now want to race right back and get it.
Less is more-- is so often, hard to achieve.
April is National Poetry Month and a lot of great poems have been coming to me from poetry websites and forwarded from friends who also love poetry.
It's a great time to stop and acknowledge WORDS!
--Debbie Hemley
www.impressionsthroughmedia.com
Posted on April 3, 2008 05:23
I always love the Webby Awards acceptance speeches. Winners are confined to five word speeches:
Bank of America Online Banking - People's Voice: Save the environment, go paperless.
TripAdvisor - People's Voice: Because some hotels still suck.
Government
FactCheck - People's Voice: Don't believe eveything you hear.
All of last year's speech's are here:
http://www.webbyawards.com/press/speeches.php
Posted on April 3, 2008 07:10
Hi Debbie,
Once you start reading it’s pretty hard not to think about what your 6 words would be. That’s another thing I like about the concept. It’s so simple, yet compelling. You can’t help but participate, even if you never click on the ‘submit’ button. Hope you enjoy the book!
-Heather
Posted on April 3, 2008 10:43
Those Webby speeches are great. A few others I liked, for different reasons:
Health
That Guy - Webby: Hey, don't be that guy.
Blog - Business
DealBook - Webby: Hey Rupert, we're available. Call.
Not surprisingly, David Bowie just had to break the rules :-)
Posted on April 3, 2008 11:00
My mother-in-law won a contest at Green Apple, a local bookstore, for her 6 word autobiography :
"Catholic school, bad marriage, single mom"
Posted on April 3, 2008 15:10
Great post, I just linked to it from my own "6 words" post.
Posted on April 4, 2008 11:46
Thanks Michael. I'm looking forward to reading your blog.
Posted on April 4, 2008 14:39
Thanks Heather, I hope you got a chance to stop by and enjoy my post.
Posted on April 9, 2008 05:24