3 Reasons To Play In #6words

I love six word stories. I love to play with them and I use them all the time in my classroom. I especially like creating six word story posters by combining words and images (such as those found on Six Word Story Every Day).

If you haven’t falled in love with six word play then I want to share three reasons why you should play in six words. First, they are an easy way to enjoy some creative word play. You simply come up with one focused concept and shape six words (sometimes getting a bit creative with punctuation and symbols) into a story.

Second, they can help you focus. When you have too many thoughts and ideas and worries rolling around in your brain. Sometimes just sitting down to craft some six word stories helps you find a bit of clarity.

Finally, six word stories can serve as a story starter or writing prompt for a larger project. I often find that creating a six word story inspires me to write more about that topic.Creating the six word story jumpstarts my thought process.

Learn more about six word stories and memoirs

There is a story that Ernest Hemingway was once challenged to write a story in just six words. He wrote: “For sale: Baby shoes, never worn” and won the bet. Fast-forward to November 2006 and Smith Magazine debuted its six word memoir project and suddenly people could not get enough of the six word form. Now we can find people creating not just six word memoirs but six word stories about many different subjects. Wired Magazine also created its own six word challenge. Pete Berg created Six Word Stories as one venue to celebrate this brief form of writing. Also, Anne Ulku and Van Horgen created Six Word Story Every Day, a daily storytelling exploration through language and typography.

The rules for creating a six word story are simple – use only six words! In addition to these online collections, you can find more stories using the #6Words hashtag on Twitter as well as many video collections of six word stories to inspire writers of any age and interest on YouTube:

Take your work to the next level by creating a six word story poster that combines your words with an image or experiment with different ways to share your six words (such as those found on Six Word Story Every Day). Go even further and create a video collections such as those shared above. #JustWrite and share your #6words.

Some of my six word stories.