1B: Six-Word Story Guidelines

Six-Word Story Guidelines

WILLIAM FAULKNER FAMOUSLY SAID that a novelist is a failed short story writer, and a short story writer is a failed poet. Hemingway, with his creation of the six-word story, combined poetry and drama into a short form that has grown in popularity while remaining difficult to achieve. Narrative is looking for six-word stories that can stand alongside the best that have been written. Here are a few:

For sale: Baby shoes. Never worn. —Ernest Hemingway

Longed for him. Got him. Shit. —Margaret Atwood

          All those pages in the fire. —Janet Burroway

           First sex. I came. She didn’t. —Sherman Alexie

WAR. Nineteen. I was older then. --Stanton S. Coerr

You can find more at Narrative Magazine.  Go to http://www.narrativemagazine.com/sixwords for more information.

To see more examples of six word stories read the Atlantic Monthly, August 27, 2013, "Describing My Experiences in Afghanistan in 6 Words" by Thomas Gibbons-Neff. His article includes a link to "A Glimpse of War Hemingway-style" in Stars and Stripes, August 8, 2013. It is also devoted to six word stories. More six-word stories by veterans can be found here.

                                                               photo by Finbarr O'Reilly/Reuters

Came home. Moved on. Couldn't forget. --Thomas Gibbons-Neff