Six Word Memoirs: Tell Your Life Story in a Few Syllables!

Posted by Dale Van Every Oct 10, 2008

Memoirs, like those who write them, come in all different sizes. Former President Ulysses S. Grant's memoirs came in two lengthy volumes and they were unfinished. The famous general died before he got to the part regarding his two terms as president. Bill Clinton's 2004 tome, My Life weighed in at nearly 1000 pages, while Virginia Woolf, a writer by trade, took only 95 pages for A Sketch of the Past.

But six words?

The phenomenon is called "Six Word Memoirs" and its genesis can be traced to the "populist storytelling" online site Smith Magazine. Apparently Smith's founding editor Larry Smith was inspired by an "unconfirmed" story about Ernest Hemingway. It seems "Papa", who was known for his minimalism, was once asked to write a complete story in as few words as possible. He came up: "For Sale: baby shoes, never worn."

Smith and memoir editor Rachel Fershleiser took the idea and ran with it, asking readers to tell their own life stories in a single sentence. That was late 2006; by mid 2007 a book, Not Quite What I Was Planning (the title coming from Summer Grimes' SWM) included about 1000 of the best Six Word Memoirs from the Smith contest, from "writers famous and obscure". SWM's are an exercise in creativity and brevity, ranging from straightforward to poignant, cryptic to humorous:

• " I asked. They answered. I wrote." ----Sebastian Junger, writer
• " No future, no past. Not lost." ----Matt Brensilver
• " Born in the desert. Still Thirsty" ----Georgene Nunn
• " I didn't come here to lose!" ----anonymous
• " Must I live this life alone? " ----anonymous
• " 70 years, few tears, hairy ears." ----Bill Querengesser
• " Well, I thought it was funny." ----Steven Colbert,comedian
• " Secret to life: marry an Italian." ----Nora Ephron, writer
• " On the seventh word, he rested." ----Steven J. Dubner

Now a year and a half later, the proliferation of SWM's includes six word "mom"oirs, numerous websites, and three more books in the planning, including Six Word Memoirs on Love & Heartbreak. If you haven't tried it yourself, perhaps now's a good time. Here's mine: "Several wrong turns. Got here anyway."