Tired of Computer. Six-Word Stories.
The wonderful poet Luke Prater has a great post up about six-word stories, including a most famous and fantastic one by Ernest Hemingway, as well as some terrific ones of his own. I urge you to check out Luke’s post. (It also includes some of the background as to what makes these micro-fictions work.)
As for me – it’s been a very long day with lots of hours spent on the computer. A great night, in other words, to doodle on a yellow pad and scribble out something very very short. Here are a few of my attempts; each is separate.
I can imagine arranging each of these as poems – one can feel the line breaks in each. But for now, they are just short short stories. Even so, I am linking them to dVerse Poets Pub Open Link Night, hosted by Tashtoo!
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DNA conclusive. Thirty years too late.
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Learning to land didn’t concern him.
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Left all but clothes. Rental furnished.
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Life’s work lost. Chance for enlightenment.
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He didn’t mean it. Life sentence.
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Abstinence education. They both skipped class.
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p.s. several commenters have said Luke’s site has gotten infected with malware. Agh. Hopefully he’ll be able to get that fixed soon.
Explore posts in the same categories: Uncategorized, writing, writing exercisesTags: 9/11 pilot microfiction, abstinence education story, DNA conclusive story, Luke Prater, manicddaily, Microfiction, six-word stories
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ManicDDaily 
December 3, 2012 at 11:26 pm
These are great, karin. I love the last one especially. Now, to check out Luke’s site.
Pamela
December 4, 2012 at 3:56 am
Very dry and witty when you only have six words. How’s this?
Inside the snowglobe. Only pretty upsidedown.
(Ok, some jammed together. I cheated. )
December 4, 2012 at 5:41 am
Ha! Well done. k.
December 4, 2012 at 6:28 am
learning to land did not concern him….what a packed stroy that…ha…i had fun writing a few of these myself…one i did not put at lukes…
Goal!
victory
celebration
drunk
flips car.
dang i really like hte life sentence one too…very cool k
December 4, 2012 at 7:02 pm
Thanks. Yours is all too common–terrible. k.
December 4, 2012 at 8:01 am
These are great. I liked the one about abstinence education- sums it up well. The hyper link failed to bring me to Luke’s site.
December 4, 2012 at 8:20 am
Thanks. Will fix. On train now. It should be http://www.lukeprater.com. Or search his name. I won’t be able to fix for a couple of hours.
December 4, 2012 at 10:18 am
Thanks, I fixed LUke’s link now. It is http://www.lukeprater.com. I left out the http://. Thanks so much. k.
December 4, 2012 at 8:04 am
Loved all of these. Yes, I am a fan of the ‘abstinence education’ one as well. Also the ‘DNA conclusive.’ (Happens way too often).
December 4, 2012 at 10:24 am
yeah, these are really good. Especially –
DNA conclusive. Thirty years too late.
Life’s work lost. Chance for enlightenment.
and
He didn’t mean it. Life sentence.
The ones that intrigue, have some mystery and give both some backstory and hint/give what happens next are the real crackers. You’re good at this
December 4, 2012 at 10:27 am
Ha! Thanks for the inspiration. Your cold hands one really struck home for me. k.
December 4, 2012 at 10:37 am
Thanks. Can you tell me which of these is most effective, if any?
Her
beaten body;
doctor brings flowers.
Woman
beaten, broken.
Doctor makes entrance.
Wife/woman
beaten; doctor
enters her life.
December 4, 2012 at 10:40 am
I think the first works best for me. It’s most enigmatic – could be that doctor’s just a professional who feels bad. The second is a bit soap-operish – like staget directions. though clearer. I find the slash a bit clinical. So I like first. It could be the beginning of a story rather than summary. (The second could be quite interesting if you are telling a story as if in a script.) But the third very summary like.
December 4, 2012 at 10:41 am
You could also try -“her body beaten,” instead of “her beaten body.” That is more open. Her beaten body sounds a little corpse like – and since you have some element of renewal going on – her body beaten may be interesting as brings in idea of spirit not beaten. But just a thought.
December 4, 2012 at 11:10 am
the slash was an either/or (wasn’t sure which word to use)… thanks
December 4, 2012 at 11:18 am
I sent a bunch of comments that don’t seem to be showing up – so this one is later. Without the slash, I think I like the third one best then. And I would say woman I think not wife.
Doctor with flowers one sounds like really badly beaten and perhaps by stranger, and the doctor sounds a bit psycho – what doctor brings flowers? I do think that could be a cool first line of an ongoing story though.
Second one feels a bit soap operaish to me still.
Third one without slash probably gets more directly at the story you are telling. I personally like woman beaten better than wife as more open ended. With wife, you feel like the next line should be “policeman enters her life!” With woman, one doesn’t immediately go to that thought. (that’s the way my mind works anyway.) k.
December 4, 2012 at 11:12 am
The first infers no husband/boyfriend antagonist though…
December 4, 2012 at 9:07 pm
Luke, my chrome browser tells me your website has malware. Hope you can find out what is wrong — I won’t be opening it soon, though. Good luck
December 9, 2012 at 12:53 pm
Hi Sabio – I’m just sorting that out – thanks – Google have cleared it now – I changed servers on my web-host, I’m fairly certain they were hacked, not me. I’ll be doing the thing soonest
cheers
December 4, 2012 at 2:15 pm
The first one cracked me up. Many thanks. If that’s what you do when you’re tired, I can’t wait to read the result when you’re alert! 🙂
Greetings from London.
December 4, 2012 at 2:18 pm
Ha! Thanks. (I’m not sure alertness does so much for my creativity!) k.
December 4, 2012 at 7:32 pm
Those are really excellent! I was afraid to try this before … and now I’m really intimidated. 🙂
December 4, 2012 at 8:53 pm
This is such a great idea. I love pieces that, with the economy of language/words, can say so much. What a challenge, and a treat. I enjoyed your take on the six-word stories. I’d never heard of this before. Thank you for the introduction.
December 4, 2012 at 9:02 pm
You are welcome. Luke Prater gives much more background on it, so should check out his post. k.
December 4, 2012 at 9:04 pm
Thanks for the heads-up. Will do.
December 4, 2012 at 9:06 pm
Best wishes with the poem seeds.
My chrome browser tells me that Luke Prater’s website has malware. I won’t be opening it. You might want to let him know.
December 4, 2012 at 9:11 pm
Thanks.
December 5, 2012 at 12:31 am
oh heck…love your six word stories…the one with the DNA..ouch and the one with not bothering to learn how to land…ha..they make one think on
December 5, 2012 at 1:42 am
Creativity ~a block of yellow trees with lead! Awesome post!
December 5, 2012 at 2:36 am
Karin, these are great. I love the humor you infuse in these. The 6 word stories are very fun, I heard of them a while back but never did any myself, with yours and Luke’s I made sure to jot down a reminder to make sure I eventually get to some, which, knowing me will be a bunch lol Every one of these is very good.
December 5, 2012 at 4:38 am
karin, what a great idea! i am definitely going to check out luke’s site… this is fascinating.
the last two stuck with me. great work.
December 5, 2012 at 7:14 am
Thanks -really Luke’s idea or TRULY Hemingway’s. I’d seen Hemingway story before but had not tried, and did not post because Luke has it, but it’s very good. Thanks. k.
December 5, 2012 at 7:17 am
i can’t access it for some reason – my browser says it’s infected with malware?! not sure if you have any way to let him know – would love to see what’s on there…
December 5, 2012 at 7:24 am
Thanks. I will let him know. k.
December 5, 2012 at 7:26 am
thank you!
December 5, 2012 at 7:26 am
Several people have told me that Luke’s site http://www.lukeprater.com seems to be infected with malware. I have let him know. Thanks. k.
December 5, 2012 at 8:42 am
Very interesting. So much meaning packed into so very words. I like it!
December 5, 2012 at 8:47 am
oops… my few flew the coop. Guess I was trying to cut down on words. Hey there’s one right there: So much meaning, very few words. Give that man, a cigar butt. Ha! Don’t get me, started on something. No really stop, you’re killing me.
December 5, 2012 at 3:08 pm
Ha! Thanks. k.
December 5, 2012 at 6:35 pm
I liked them all – brilliant work! Last one sticks with me.
December 6, 2012 at 12:56 am
[…] My life has had very little writing time of late, which leads me to… more six word stories! (Inspired by Ernest Hemingway and Luke Prater.) The idea is to tell a story in just six words. I came up with a few the other day — here are a few more: […]
December 6, 2012 at 6:34 am
Very cool. I used to post a six word Friday … Our host would give us on word and we would participate in sharing our vision . It was fun.
December 6, 2012 at 2:30 pm
terrific snippets, love these, and thanks for the link to Luke Prator 😉
December 6, 2012 at 2:33 pm
tashtoo, don’t know how valid this is, but got this msg from google re the luke prator site :
Danger: Malware Ahead!
Google Chrome has blocked access to this page on http://www.lukeprater.com.
Content from http://www.lukeprater.com, a known malware distributor, has been inserted into this web page. Visiting this page now is very likely to infect your Mac with malware.
sometimes, as has happened to me in the past, a page is a passive unknowing host, anyway, thought best to let you know
take care tashtoo
December 6, 2012 at 2:34 pm
Thanks – I’m Karin! (That’s okay.) Yes. I had posted a note that Luke’s site has some issues right now. Sorry. k.
December 6, 2012 at 2:43 pm
opps, sorry k., sorry ’bout that, if it’s any comfort, small mis-cues vs my poor wife taking care of me the last two days (fever & chills, but much better)
still very much liked your samples 😉
December 6, 2012 at 2:46 pm
No worries! So sorry you haven’t been feeling well. And very sorry that Luke’s site is messed up right now. k.
December 6, 2012 at 2:49 pm
i know, that kind of stuff should be more aggressively protected, and so far google’s done a good job of letting me know; and, slowly getting my strength back up, thanks k. 😉
December 9, 2012 at 12:57 pm
I’m back up and Google have cleared it… but I’m gonna wait a day or two to see. My web-host is seriously incompetent… I had a damn firewall on that install. I switched servers, I’m pretty sure they were hacked, not me at this stage.
December 9, 2012 at 1:13 pm
That is terrible.
December 9, 2012 at 1:18 pm
It’s ok… I’ll sort it out. Thanks for the concern/support
December 9, 2012 at 2:29 pm
thanks luke, best wishes, hope you have all cleared up soon, take care 😉