This will be, oh I don’t know, maybe the 5th or 6th time my reading class has done six-word stories (I get a different group each quarter). That’s right six-word stories. I believe the original six word story was written by none other than Ernest Hemingway and it went like this:

For sale: baby shoes, never worn.

It is claimed that he considered it his best work. I thought For Whom the Bell Tolls was pretty good myself.

There is something to be said for six-word stories. For one thing, they are short. I like that. They can definitely have a beginning, middle and end. It is possible to set up and resolve conflicts of sorts as well. Just as importantly, they can be a heck of a lot of fun to write—and read!

The interest is amped up considerably if there is some graphic element involved. My idea fr incorporating this into a reading class assignment came a few years ago after perusing an issue of Wired magazine.

The editors at Wired commissioned a bunch of authors (science fiction and horror types mostly) to come up with their own six-word stories and many of them were presented in visually interesting ways. Some looked like they were printed on book spines, others were made of swooshing arrangements of letters, some were reflected in the windows of skyscrapers. In my view there are lot’s of possibilities in a six-word story.

Some examples from the Wired project:

Epitaph: He shouldn’t have fed it.
- Brian Herbert

Don’t marry her. Buy a house.
- Stephen R. Donaldson

TIME MACHINE REACHES FUTURE!!! … nobody there …
- Harry Harrison

It’s behind you! Hurry before it
- Rockne S. O’Bannon

I’m your future, child. Don’t cry.
- Stephen Baxter

There are many more, not all exactly appropriate for school but not too terribly bad either. That’s why I’m not providing a link to them. Here’s one I came up with:

Swallowed hammer. Hurt throat. Not smart!

Not mybest work perhaps, but…

So, I am looking forward to this edition of the six-word story project, and will post pictures of the best and most interesting results. I’ll post some here when they are done.