Life in six words

In the 1920s, Ernst Hemingway bet ten dollars that he could write a complete story in just six words. He won the bet. He wrote, ‘For sale: baby shoes, never worn’. So few words and so much sense. I was really inspired by the idea. I asked the question: ‘Is it really possible to tell one’s life story in just six words and is it possible to find some strategies of how to do it?’. Of course we lack the genius of Ernst Hemingway and his famous ‘iceberg style’, but still…

For those who have a story to tell, who are not afraid of the challenge, who are ready to tell their stories in just six words.

I found out that an American journalist Larry Smith in his online magazine used the Hemingway anecdote to inspire his readers to write their life stories in just six words, and they were overwhelmed by the thousands who took up the challenge. They published the best in a book which they gave the title of one of the submissions: ‘Not Quite What I was Planning’. Some people tried to tell a whole story of a life in six words and other times they were telling a moment in their life, right at that moment, something they were feeling right then. Having read all the stories, Larry Smith found that they had to give people parameters. And I found out that these parameters could be really helpful in a story telling process. Here they are: