If you’d like to hear Larry Smith describe his six-word project, enjoy. He responded with this classic line: For sale: baby shoes, never worn. I would absolutely love to hear some of them. challenged to write a story in only six words. I hope you will find time for you own 6-word story, and your students’ stories, to be part of that telling. I wonder what they’d say now? This is a moment in history that should be recorded by many voices. Here are some student examples from last spring. Larry Smith has spoken at conferences across the world and led workshops in companies such as ESPN, Levi’s, Dell, JPMorganChase, and Shutterfly, as well as at schools and nonprofits of all kinds. Every student has a 2020 story to tell, and allowing only six words both takes off the pressure and enhances the need for focus. In settings such as in boardrooms, classrooms, staff retreats, and conferences, Six-Word Memoirs is a simple concept that’s become an effective tool to spark conversation, crystalize goals, and boil anything down to its core. I identify with that last one! One of the best things about 6-word memoirs is that they can work for any level from first grade on up. Inspired by Ernest Hemingways legendary shortest of short stories (For sale: Baby shoes, never worn), Smith asked his readers to describe their lives in six. What better for 2020? In the Times column, Smith quoted some 2020 memoirs. According to Smith, the constraints of six-word memoirs work best in moments of high emotions-the best and worst times of our lives. They have been collected in Smith’s books, beginning with Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs from Writers Famous & Obscure in 2008, on his website, and in a variety of spin-offs by other authors, like six-word horror stories.

Six-word memoirs are exactly what they sound like, an expression of a memory or a moment in time, limited to six words. The excerpt below has only 250 words, so it qualifies as a short memoir. As you can notice, it is a six-word title of memoir. The first of the two memoir examples is titled, ‘When I Ran Out of Money.’. Another: Found true love, married someone else. Short memoirs are typically suitable for writing in such cases. In a New York Times opinion column this fall, Larry Smith, founder and editor of Smith Magazine, suggested that his six-word memoir format is a good one for recording our pandemic times. Six-Word Memoir's Danielle Shum's Six-Word Review: 'Comforting anecdotes echo the human condition.' From the World: I know and love The Moth a force of live, personal narratives with roots in porch lit, bourbon-infused storytelling. For example, Stephen Colberts six-word memoir is Well, I thought it was funny.

6 word memoir