This Could be the Next Chicken Soup for the Soul
I enjoy the distillation of words. I believe less is best, and when writing I try to leave out the parts that most people skip (as recommended by novelist Elmore Leonard). I love the one line poem, the picture that’s worth a thousand words, and cutting back the rose so more blooms will grow. But the meme Pearl recently tagged me for – to write a six word memoir – was a challenge I initially tried to avoid because it seemed nearly impossible to abbreviate my life to that degree.
The meme was inspired by the book, Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous & Obscure, which was inspired by Hemingway’s alleged six word story, “For Sale: baby shoes, never worn.” The book is a collection of almost 1,000 six word memoirs, including those of celebrities, such as Steven Colbert. “Well, I thought it was funny,” his reads. Other ones I like, found at the Smith Magazine website, where the memoirs were culled from: “Anything is possible with an extension cord,” Billy Sirr; “Proof that potheads can be somebody,” by Green Bean; and “Manhattan raised. Three kids? Hello, Jersey,” by Dano.
Maybe this is cheating. I wrote more than one memoir. Read together; could be a poem. Everything is suspect; counting every word.
Once I started, I couldn’t stop:
Six word memoirs in sixteen parts
Backseat poet; the muse is driving
Gidget goes Woodstock; ends up country
Barefoot homebody; gets lost in cities
Still hangs laundry on the line
Techno phobic blogger mainlines computer
Is there rehab for tea drinkers?
Love me but leave me alone
Doesn’t do knick knacks or math
Fifty-six and never been in high-heels
Lies about age; just one year
College drop out; flunked middle class
I’d rather be looking through kaleidoscopes
Field note taker; writes on hand
Yields to children; brakes for flowers
Always preparing the ultimate travel wardrobe
Time to turn over; I’m done
I’m tagging Deana, Claudia, Bonnie, and Country Dew, June, and you. No one should feel the need to write as many as I did. Most players have just written one.
April 18th, 2008 10:56 am
This is great. It does read like a poem.
April 18th, 2008 11:28 am
I adore 6 word stories. So our task is to write our memoir in 6 words sections? I’m on it. I also believe less words are more – I despise adverbs and their cousins adjectives. Hello Thesaurus! 🙂
Thanks this will be fun! 🙂
April 18th, 2008 11:38 am
I like the one about braking for flowers and children.
I just wrote some of my own, too, because I had seen Jennifer at Chapter Next do them and it helped me through writing a paper!!
I have a couple about being a mountain girl, too!!
April 18th, 2008 11:40 am
I loved yours! But they have more than 6 words in them.
Here is mine:
1. Service to others with family included.
2. Middle child of the 60’s; blonde and somewhat naive.
3. caring, staring, daring with some flaring and blaring.
April 18th, 2008 2:45 pm
I love these memoirs…think I’ll recommend this exercise for our writers group.
What can I say about myself in six words? think, think, think, this is hard!
Susan
April 18th, 2008 2:46 pm
OH MY…I was going to come back when I decided on six words and just realized that my last comment:
Think, think, think, this is hard!
IS six words. lol
Susan
April 18th, 2008 2:47 pm
Here’s the six-word memoir I wrote in February:
internal dialogue
discovered blogging
shared dialogue
I posted it on my Words from a Wordsmith blog:
http://wordsfromawordsmith.blogspot.com/2008/02/sharing-through-blogs.html
Colleen, may I link this post with your (many) memoirs to my Weekend Wordsmith prompt of Six-Word Memoirs? Here’s the link, if you want to check it out:
http://weekendwordsmith.blogspot.com/2008/02/six-word-memoir.html
I liked your very first six-word memoir, which could apply equally to my blogging:
Once I started,
I couldn’t stop
Ooooh, and I especially like the idea that you “flunked middle class” … wonderful!
April 18th, 2008 5:32 pm
Yes, Bonnie on linking here. I was able to retrieve your comment from the spam folder. When you use http links in comments it sometimes thinks you a spammer.
April 18th, 2008 5:40 pm
Isn’t this fun? I have a couple posted at Bonnie’s:
observing life, hiking along nature’s footpath
recapturing youth, playing with the grandkids
Have a great weekend!
April 18th, 2008 5:42 pm
Forgot to say: LOVE yours!
College drop out; flunked middle class
I’d rather be looking through kaleidoscopes
perfect!
April 18th, 2008 5:54 pm
Thanks, Susan. My mind hasn’t stopped counting my thoughts.
Thanks for playing, Sherry. I was trying to think of one to cover being one of nine and loving Joe, but they haven’t come yet. At least I got my love of children in there and glad to see Poe liked that one. Coming to visit, Poe(t), my mountain/beach friend.
As far as I can count, She. All mine are six words, except one I just now noticed was five.
April 18th, 2008 6:43 pm
You have been immortalized among the other memoirists, here:
http://weekendwordsmith.blogspot.com/2008/02/six-word-memoir.html
Sometimes, even without a single blue link, your editor thinks I’m spam. Don’t know why.
April 18th, 2008 8:01 pm
I had done this meme a while back! I wrote:
read as much as I can
I know that is no memoir but what else?!
Got here from Michele’s M&G!
April 18th, 2008 11:43 pm
going on being,living a vision
April 18th, 2008 11:56 pm
Michele sent me. I owe her.
I wrote long. I lived well.
I think I could also go on for a while, but I’ll keep it brief – just to be sure.
Thanks for the literary smile, Colleen. I can always count on you for that, and so much more.
April 19th, 2008 4:06 am
These are just WONDERFUL Colleen….You are a Genius at this, I swear…lol! And they all could be a whole poem…..! I don’t think I could do this, at all! So, I’m not even going to try!
April 19th, 2008 8:57 am
“Embraced it all, loved it all”
sandy kessler
April 19th, 2008 8:57 am
going on being, it’s nothing special
April 19th, 2008 10:10 am
These are terrific Colleen! You are the most clever person I know. The only thing I’ve come up with so far is:
She questioned everything and answered nothing.
But now you’ve got me thinking about it like a song that gets into your head…
April 20th, 2008 5:35 am
I had a list started and had actually read a few to Martin because I had seen this going on in Blogworld and I lost it, but I remember my main one. Yours were great…very creative.
April 20th, 2008 11:35 am
Those are great, Colleen. Now I have to think of something … hmm. Life is short, I make do.
I’ll have to return to you.
Good grief, now I am rhyming.
April 22nd, 2008 10:57 am
I wouldn’t hve expected anything less than this masterpiece from you on this project. It was like eating potato chips for me, too – no way I could satisfy myself with just one!
April 22nd, 2008 8:02 pm
I had seen this before and never thought I could do just so few words. I love how you did it with a collection. Very nicely done.
April 23rd, 2008 7:14 pm
My tombstone will read:
What a ride! To be continued…
January 31st, 2009 9:53 pm
I really enjoyed “Field note taker; writes on hand
Yields to children; brakes for flowers” this story. Made me think…I felt like I could relate. Thanks for that 🙂
March 30th, 2012 9:12 am
[…] Hemingway’s alleged six word memoir was “For Sale: baby shoes, never worn.” Mine is cross between “College drop out; flunked […]