Six-Word Stories

One of my favorite short stories of all time is a short story written by Ernest Hemingway. It’s only six words long, but really evokes emotion in me. It does exactly what a short story should do – allows you to take in the written text, but forces you to think about what hasn’t been written. It goes like this:

For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn.

It’s powerful, sad, enticing, everything. Is this a couple that has lost their baby and is selling the shoes to feed the rest of their children? Or did this couple simply have too many pairs of shoes and the baby never got a chance to wear these? It can go in a lot of different directions.

Now, I am not saying I am anywhere near the caliber of Ernest Hemingway, but I have felt inspired to attempt to write my own six-word stories and see if I can make them as effective as his. Here we go:

For Rent: One bedroom, no heat.

OK, so I kind of just copied the formula on that one and yes, it is more of a classified listing than story, but it’s a start. It makes you wonder “Why would this person feel the need to point out that the heat is broken?” Well, perhaps this person has gone through a life of dissappointment and heightened expectations and doesn’t want to force this potential renter to come in with the same expectations. Powerful. Let me try another one:

Do you like me? Yes/No

I’m happier with that one. It’s a play on the popular notes we would sometimes get in middle school. This isn’t so much a story about the note itself, but the answer. It’s a cliffhanger – if the recipient circles NO, then what happens to the sender? If the recipient circles YES, do they run off happily together? Exciting. One more:

Cabbage soup. Last call. No bread.

I don’t… yeah, I don’t even know what that one means. It’s kinda the first thing that came to my head and now I am really confused. Is it my last chance to get cabbage soup? Like last call at a bar? If that is the case, I guess I understand why they are out of bread, but I am not happy about it. I would think they would have more bread than soup. And really, if people are buying cabbage soup, I wouldn’t do a last call. Let that shit sell as long as possible.

Alright, I guess six-word stories aren’t as easy as I thought. In closing:

Ernest Hemingway. Functioning alcoholic. Cat Lover.