A (short?) short story

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• Leerjaar 4

A (short?) short story

A short story

Legend has it that Hemingway’s favorite piece of his own writing was a six-word short story that he wrote to win a bet:

 

For sale: baby shoes, never worn.

For sale: baby shoes, never worn
Do you think that Hemingway’s piece is a short story? Briefly motivate your answer.

For sale: baby shoes, never worn

• How short can a story be and still be a story? 
• Can you express a narrative in just six words? Characters? 
• Who is narrating this story? 
• How important are punctuation and syntax to its telling? 
• What differentiates it from a poem?

How short can a story be and still be a story?

1. Between 0-100 words
2. Between 100-1000 words
3. Between 1000-10.000 words
4. Between 10.000-40.000 words

Can you express a narrative in just six words?

1. Yes, you can
2. No, you cannot

For sale: baby shoes, never worn
What differentiates it from a poem?

For sale: baby shoes, never worn

• How short can a story be and still be a story? 
• Can you express a narrative in just six words? Characters? 
• Who is narrating this story? 
• How important are punctuation and syntax to its telling? 
• What differentiates it from a poem?

Now it is your turn: In pairs, Take a famous film or novel and summarise it into a six-word story.

Test - Theodore L. Thomas

Please take five minutes to read Thomas's Test

In pairs, turn Test into a six-word story.

What do you see your six- word story as?

1. A summary
2. A tagline
3. The moral of the story

Which elements of the original story did you absolutely need to include and why?

What is the relationship between the two texts? Are your six-word story and the original story even in the same genre?

Questions

• What does your six-word story leave out? 
• How important is punctuation to your six- word story? Diction? Tone? 
• Is there a narrative arc to your story? Is there an epiphany?