Brevity is the soul of wit, right? Someone linked recently to a writing post by Wired wherein people write six-word short stories on a prompt Wired provides. Reading them was an interesting experience because some were evocative, some were funny, and some didn’t hit me the way they clearly did for whoever was editing that, but all of them really did evoke a story or a feeling in six words. Like the old classic short tragedy: “For sale: baby shoes. Never worn.” (Though I might do “worn once” for a different punch?)
It reminds me of Eric Carle saying that writing a novel was taking a 60-word idea and turning it into 60,000 words where his books were taking 60,000 words and turning them into 60. (That being said, he gets pictures, so that’s a little bit cheating.) Most writers will tell you editing is certainly the hardest part, but the most necessary. My writers’ group and I often lament “Ugh, talking. This is why I’m a writer! I can edit what I’m trying to say so it makes sense!” It’s unlikely to come out right the first time. *
I also saw an image of a field researcher’s short post about their adventure tagging some critters for study and found myself mentally condensing it until I ended up with “Glued transmitter, and self, to crocodile.” Upon that, I decided I’d come over here and experiment further with some 6 word stories. I’ll put a prompt and then follow it up with a story or so.
—
Write a love story!
Stole my heart…then my wallet.
We grew our smile wrinkles together.
The way she ate spaghetti- devastating.
An old prompt from Wired; “write a story about a new flavor.”
Milk from Mars cows gels better.
Didn’t expect a meatier meteor…
Needn’t stand up, food has legs.
Sweet, bitter, sour, umami, now Serotonini.
Write about an unfinished relationship.
Best friends in middle school; moved-
Wish I’d gone to that lunch.
Our only meeting won’t leave me.
—
Takeaways:
-Intro words take up unnecessary space. “I wish I had?” Why do I need to say I twice? That’s a third of my words gone in 2 letters. Chuck the first.
-Are contractions cheating?
-You really have to lean on word association. Using a word that is unexpected adds something to the equation. Milk can curdle or sour or sweeten but gelling? What else is it doing that’s unusual if it’s gelling? Also specifics. “That” lunch is different than “a” lunch with a person. It’s not just any lunch; something happened or didn’t happen at or because of “that” lunch.
-I think it’s easier to write short tragedies or comedies because you’re leaning on someone’s inner pain or desire to laugh, smile, chortle, or write lol to their friends. Our brains also easily latch on to horror in the short and unexpected. A sweet but satisfying story is I think harder to put in fewer words. That’s my impression from this brief experiment, but I might change my mind on further research.
I’m pretty tired so I’m going to leave it at this, but hey! 10 stories in one post! A record here! I’ll write a longer one next time.
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*yet here I am giving you rough drafts. Well, sort of. Trust me, the backspace key is heavily in use, and more so when I’m tired and can’t, for example, remember how to spell packsbpase.