Six Word Memoir

Posted on Tuesday, March 11th, 2008 in writing Tags: ,

There’s a meme doing the rounds at the moment, which challenges bloggers to write their own memoir in six words. It forces you to think about who and what you are and what you’ve done, and then condense it into a ridiculously small number of words - good writing practice, perhaps? 

Various newspapers have done similar things over the years, asking writers to produce a six word novel (I’ve seen it done in The Guardian for sure). As far as I remember, the idea came from when Ernest Hemingway wrote one of these and called it his best work (”For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”)  Googling “six word novel” gets you plenty of hits, anyway.

I’ve been tagged for this by The Anatomy of Construction, so I’m going to give it a go.

 Never satisfied, always seeking, sometimes finding.

And I’m going to tag Bebo Author, Ken Armstrong and Drops of Blood - apologies if any of you has done this already on another blog.

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12 Responses to 'Six Word Memoir'

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  1. no imageFrancis Scudellari (Who am I?) said,

    on March 11th, 2008 at 7:30 pm

    I like your 6-word memoir quite a bit … I think it could be my self-summary as well, although I don’t know that I’ve actually found very much yet :). I love the new color scheme, btw.

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    		2.9
  2. no imageMelissa Donovan (Who am I?) said,

    on March 11th, 2008 at 9:29 pm

    That is quite impressive. Six words. Wow. Nice job!

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    		2.5
  3. no imageCarolyn B. (Who am I?) said,

    on March 11th, 2008 at 11:58 pm

    Challenge accepted! :o) This was a fun one. Here’s my first stab at summarizing my approach to life in six words:

    Curious, laughing, appreciative exploration of life.

    I wasn’t sure about the rest of it, but I *knew* that “curious” had to come first. :o)

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    		2.9
  4. no imageLaura (Who am I?) said,

    on March 12th, 2008 at 12:49 am

    I did this one too. Forget what I wrote now something about reading, writing and living.

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    		2.9
  5. no imagebrady (Who am I?) said,

    on March 14th, 2008 at 2:14 am

    Now see, if if had been me, I would have gone with:
    I lived. I died. Worms came.

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    		2.9
  6. no imageclairec23 (Who am I?) said,

    on March 15th, 2008 at 4:40 am

    This is going to take me ages - but I will do it so bear with me!

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    		2.9
  7. no imageKen Armstrong (Who am I?) said,

    on March 15th, 2008 at 9:21 pm

    Hiya

    Just realised you tagged me. Silly me, ‘guess I should’ve known earlier. I’ll give it a go. Do I post here or on my own page??

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    		2.8
  8. no imageCatherine (Who am I?) said,

    on March 15th, 2008 at 11:50 pm

    Whichever you want, Ken!

    And @ Brady - interesting, but a bit generic, dontcha think? :)

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    		2.5
  9. no imageKen Armstrong (Who am I?) said,

    on March 16th, 2008 at 1:24 pm

    Some words are marginally funnier than others - ‘Hoover’ just won out, in that instance :)

    Willy Clarke, in the movie/play ‘The Sunshine Boys’, has a good piece about funny/unfunny words:

    “…Pickle is funny, Chicken is funny, Alka-Seltzer is funny..” I think he favoured the hard ‘k’ sound, as many do.

    So there!!

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    		2.8
  10. no imageKen Armstrong (Who am I?) said,

    on March 16th, 2008 at 6:53 pm

    Okay, I’ve thought about this a bit…

    Six words, eh?

    “Scribbling my merry way towards decrepitude.”

    :)

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    		2.8
  11. no imageSusan (Who am I?) said,

    on March 17th, 2008 at 9:07 pm

    Well, that memoir was just TOO good: consider yourself tagged for another of these bloody things, the seven-random-facts meme. Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!

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    		2.9
  12. no imagebookbabie (Who am I?) said,

    on March 18th, 2008 at 7:22 pm

    Wonderful blog, I’m so glad you picked up the meme, I started it and although I have nothing to do with the book, Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure, I thought it would make a great meme, thanks for playing!

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    		2.5

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