Debates about story length, jumps, alternative forms and multiple entry points are hardly new – though they have taken on new urgency as we wrestle with engaging a changing, demanding audience.
As an editorial page editor, I had hundreds of arguments with letter writers who were certain they couldn't adequately express themselves within our 200-word limit. For years, we pointed to an Anchorage Daily News letter that had done a fine job in just 14 words:
I smoke pot. So what? Send me to jail. I can get it there.
That was eclipsed when I later discovered the winner of a nation-wide essay contest on the theme "good government" had used just six words:
Good government. Good government. Sit. Stay.
It turns out that lots of people have worked on telling stories in few words, sometimes called "flash fiction." I had never before encountered this story, which Ernest Hemingway reportedly called his best work:
For sale. Baby shoes, never worn.
I recently encountered this post, which encourages people to come up with "six word stories."
Let's play, too. You could leave your suggestions here as comments.
11 comments:
‘Newspapers, who cares?’ We sure do.
I thought of one:
Launch, learn, relaunch. Repeat as necessary.
Newspapers go online. Birdcage is filthy.
Post story. Get stats. Ca-ching! (is a hyphenated word one word or two?)
Here's a fun site too - and some really great sentences.
http://www.onesentence.org
He had been good for years.
Flickr has a Six Word Story group that introduced the concept for me.
Gazing breathlessly through my cellar door.
Fix it. Or someone else will.
But then again, I just twittered today that I find political pronouncements on Twitter to be shallower than a sound bite on the evening news. Bumper-sticker-speak.
true but false
real but imaginary
Post a Comment