“Say It All in Six Words”by Lizzie Widdicombe The New Yorker, February 25, 2008 Every single sentence six words long! Brilliant. |
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Brevity: a good thing in writing. Exploited by texters, gossip columnists, haikuists. Not associated with the biography genre. But then—why shouldn’t it be? Life expectancies rise; attention spans shrink. Six words can tell a story. That’s a new book’s premise, anyway. “Not Quite What I Was Planning.” A compilation of teeny tiny memoirs. The forebear, it’s assumed, is Hemingway. (Legend: he wrote a miniature masterpiece. “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” Slightly sappy, but a decent sixer.) Say It All in Six Words.pdf or Say It All in Six Words.doc versions of this article. |
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“As an autobiographical challenge, the six-word limitation forces us to pinpoint who we are and what matters most — at least in the moment. The constraint fuels rather than limits our creativity.” -- Larry Smith |
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Videos “Told You I’d Be Published Someday: The Story of the Six-Word Memoir Project” Introduction to Assignment -- Teen Memoirs -- I Can’t Keep My Own Secrets Six Tips for Writing Six-Word Memoirs Writing Six-Word Memoirs Best Site
Articles CBS News, “Six-Word Memoirs Can Say It All” (February 26, 2008). Overview of project. TED Conversation: “Life, in six words: Highlights from our chat with Larry Smith.” NPR Six-Word Memoirs: Life Stories Distillled (February 7, 2008). Includes audio. PowellsBooks.Blog “The Joy of Six” (January 29, 2010). Discussion of success of form, with links to several videos. Wired, “Very Short Stories” (Issue 14.11 - November 2006) 33+ science fiction versions. Washington Post “Through Children’s Eyes” -- illustrated versions by young children. “The Pandemic in Six-Word Memoirs,” New York Times (12 September 2020). PDF “Students Describe Their Pandemic Experience in Six Words,” New York Times (28 October 2021). PDF |
Specific Books
Online Six Words website from Smith magazine includes inspiration in multiple categories and a place to share. You can also sign up for a daily email. Illustration Gallery offers 100+ memoirs, in varied styles. Monthly Contests (and galleries of previous contests). Six in Schools offers free teacher guides, video links, guidelines for submitting online, as well as worldwide student examples. Backstories includes short interviews for especially powerful memoirs. |
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My Process My process -- I begin the project by showing the introductory video above. Then I show my PowerPoint Directions. I ask them to use a very simple template posted in Google Docs so that there is a consistency of picture size, font, etc. You may choose to let your students have more freedom with design. My Assignment Handout -- One Page I also have a longer PowerPoint of Examples which can be useful if students need more ideas. It also includes directions, blank slides, etc. Six-Word Memoirs PowerPoint -- All the slides. Suggestions for Using Six-Word Memoirs in the Classroom -- includes samples for the current pandemic. Critique of Six Word Memoir Assignment -- Designed for group members to evaluate their process IF students were assigned to produce a video of their memoirs. |
Samples My PowerPoint Examples -- All slides created by former students and fellow teachers over the years. Just some of my favorites. Mr. Wright’s Creative Writing Class -- Each student designed an individual slide in an individual style. Kind of quirky but very creative. O Magazine Mini-Memoirs -- Including Oprah’s. Handouts Say It All in Six Words Handout -- Includes New Yorker article above, tips, directions, and suggested adaptations of the basic six-word memoir. Novel Six-Word Memoir -- Adapted as a book project, students write Six-Word Memoirs for the protagonist, the antogonist, and the plot. Historical Six-Word Memoir -- Students write and illustrate a Six-Word Memoir for a historical figure. Would also work well for a biography book report. I stole this great idea from Glenn Wiebe’s blog post. Sample Historical Powerpoint Memoir -- examples for important people in history. Short Assignment Handout -- Two-pages inclusive, would work for elementary classes as well. (Ledbetter) Six-Word Illustrated Face -- directions, template, examples (Pernille Ripp). Slightly different approach to the memoir from Spark Creativity. |
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Quotes “If a writer of prose knows enough of what he is writing about he may omit things that he knows and the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a feeling of those things as strongly as though the writer had stated them. The dignity of movement of an ice-berg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water. A writer who omits things because he does not know them only makes hollow places in his writing.” “Every piece of writing, no matter how flat and useful, is a crowd of stories, and each of them is a sentence. Every sentence tells a tale: it names someone (or something) and tells you something about them - what they did; what they are; or what happened to them.” |
Six-Word Mini-Poster
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Updated 8 May 2023.