Many remember a story told by Arthur Clarke where during a lunch Hemingway said that he can write a whole short story using only six words. The story written on a table-napkin is here: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn”. This joke inspired multiple radio shows, Reddit, Twitter, and editors to start challenging their fans asking to write short stories.
One of the first challenges was thrown out by SMITH magazine. The answers from their readers resulted in the book “Not Quite What I Was Planning”.
WIRED magazine also made a similar challenge asking famous sci-fi, horror, and fantasy writers to make up a short fiction story consisting of 6 words. Many famous personalities participated in this small friendly competition including Arthur Clarke himself, Neil Gaiman, and Harry Harrison. Obviously, these professionals wrote a whole bunch of ultra-short stories.
Some of them I will quote in my first comment and we all can play this interesting game!
Tell about your life using only 6 words! Let’s go!
Better follow richman to get rich
Can't think of something to write.
I was Hercules, No! Another Hydra-head
Had kids, they died, I live.
I love drum and bass music.
Or, better yet:
You can sleep when you're dead.
I play guitar and hack code
Tell me: why should I try ?
There were only six words left.
– Gregory Maguire
I saw, darling, but do lie.
– Orson Scott Card
Lost, then found. Too bad.
– Graeme Gibson
Heaven falls. Details at eleven.
– Robert Jordan
Easy. Just touch the match to.
– Ursula K. Le Guin
Don’t marry her. Buy a house.
– Stephen R. Donaldson
It cost too much, staying human.
– Bruce Sterling
We kissed. She melted. Mop please!
– James Patrick Kelly
O no, she is coming earlier!