A Six Word Story That’s More Epic Than Many 50,000-Word Novels
What to call this masterpiece?
It’s often said that ‘if it’s important, keep it short.’ But does that mean as short as only six words? Can you tell something more vividly in just six words than 50,000? I don’t think so.
And I’m happy I was wrong. Just look at this:
‘For sale: baby shoes, never worn.’
Premise
So I was reading a book the other day when I stumbled upon a chapter: The Six-Word Rule: How to sum up a whole life in six words.
So this chapter’s crux was the message to keep it short. But more than that, I found the stories the author used to convey more interesting.
And I want to share them with you.
The Hemingway Challenge
There’s hardly anyone who doesn’t know Ernest Hemingway (for those who really don’t, here’s the Wikipedia link).
Halfway through the book, I found this chapter whose story I found more interesting than the lesson itself. And I’d rather tell you the whole story—as it is in the book—than summary. And here it goes:
No one knows whether the story’s true, but it is a good one anyway. Ernest Hemingway was sitting having a drink with some writer friends at Lüchow’s restaurant in New York.
They were talking about this and that, and eventually moved on to what the ideal length of a good novel might be. Hemingway claimed that he could write a novel in six words: the others each bet $10 that he couldn’t.
Whereupon Hemingway wrote: ‘For sale: baby shoes, never worn’ on a napkin. Six words, behind which lies a tragedy. Those who don’t gulp when they read this must have hearts of stone.
It took me three reads to understand the meaning of those six words. I think I can be forgiven as I’m just 15. Nevertheless, once I got what that meant I was so fascinated by the fact that so less words can say so much that I did nothing but continued to read those six words over and over again.
A picture in my mind was being imagined so vividly that I’m sure a couple of thousand words would not have been enough to express. It’s certainly more epic than many 50,000-word novels.
Here’s one more from the book:
‘Cursed with cancer. Blessed with friends.’ —a nine-year-old cancer survivor
I just loved the depth those words contain in themselves. It’s just marvelous. Can you think of such a six-word story?
Read more ‘written-by-a-15-year-old’ stuffs from my profile here: VRITANT. And sign up to receive my best articles straight in your inbox here: that teleportation link for articles (hehe!). Until next time, bye!
