Six Word Memoirs

 

Six-Word Memoirs: The Legend Legend has it that Hemingway was once challenged to write a story in only six words. His response? “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”

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This is a fun exercise in brevity that I first read about at Teacher Magazine. in the story The Short, Happy Lives of Teachers. The author of that story got the idea from a book called Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six Word Memoirs from Writers Famous and Obscure. 

Won't you join in and participate? I haven't seen this one around our 'neighborhood' so I'm hoping it's a new activity. If it has been around, and I'm just ignorant of it, please forgive.

Everyone has a story. Can you tell yours in six words? It doesn't have to sum up your life, but could reflect a period of your life, a moment, or where you are right now.

If you are having trouble thinking of six words to sum up your life story, check out the examples others have written at the link provided above. Here's a few examples to get you started:

Got sidetracked. Still playing catch up. (artm)

never felt worthy, now feel thankful (kzf)

Read the map. Still got lost. (thunderfire)

And here are three that I wrote. One reflects my life since I was an adult, the other a year in school, and the last my life as a whole:

Married, gave birth, worked, laughed, wrote.

Ten months tense. Two months relaxed.

Once dead. Now alive. Thank God.

Now you give it a try. Either write it up in your journal/blog, then come back to this entry and leave your journal link. I want to put them all together and link back to your journals. Or, send me an email, also with your journal link ... or leave them in my comment section for this entry only, with your journal link if you have one.

Deadline for this is Saturday morning, July 12th... I want to post the results by Saturday night. Thanks!!

Good luck, and I'm looking forward to reading your Six Word Memoirs.

If you need aditional inspiration, which most of you won't, because you all like to write, listen to this BBC interview with the editor who first called for the Six Word Memoirs, which became the book mentioned at the start of this entry. There you can click on the icon for the interview, and listen to the first 4-5 minutes of this broadcast, as the rest is news.

Tags: Six Word Memoirs, Hemingway Legend,