Six Words

This entry references a topic that has come to have some circulation in my life lately:


"NPR Book Notes
Non-Fiction
Six-Word Memoirs: Life Stories Distilled
See a gallery of illustrated six-word memoirs



“Revenge is living well, without you.”
Author Joyce Carol Oates

“Fight, work, persevere -- gain slight notoriety.”
Comic book writer Harvey Pekar


Talk of the Nation, February 7, 2008 · Once asked to write a full story in six words, legend has it that novelist Ernest Hemingway responded: "For Sale: baby shoes, never worn."
In this spirit of simple yet profound brevity, the online magazine Smith asked readers to write the story of their own lives in a single sentence. The result is Not Quite What I Was Planning, a collection of six-word memoirs by famous and not-so-famous writers, artists and musicians. Their stories are sometimes sad, often funny — and always concise.
The book is full of well-known names — from writer Dave Eggers (Fifteen years since last professional haircut), to singer Aimee Mann (Couldn't cope so I wrote songs), to comedian Stephen Colbert (Well, I thought it was funny).

The collection has plenty of six-word insights from everyday folks as well: Love me or leave me alone was scrawled on a hand dryer in a public bathroom; I still make coffee for two was penned by a 27-year-old who had just been dumped.

Larry Smith, founding editor of Smith magazine, and Rachel Fershleiser, Smith's memoir editor, talk about the experience of capturing real-life stories in six words — no more, no less.

Fershleiser's six-word memoir? Bespectacled, besneakered, read and ran around.

And Smith's: Big hair, big heart, big hurry"

So then what about me?

Head inclined, listening for the muse.

(if you think this is easy to do, you're mistaken)