Skip to main content

Can you tell a story in six words? Twitter wants to know

“For sale: Baby shoes, never worn.”

Ernest Hemingway supposedly wrote that eerie but decidedly evocative six-word story in a bar room challenge. It’s just a literary urban legend, but the idea that a gifted storyteller can get their point across in so few words is still a formidable challenge for writers. That’s why Smith Magazine launched its Six Word Memoir project in 2006, asking readers to send in their life stories in six words. What was meant to fill space after writers backed out of an assignment turned into a full-fledged writing trend, as the magazine received a deluge of responses. The project blossomed into an ongoing challenge, with six books published with some of the best responses. Teachers use “six words” as a prompt in the classroom, it’s an icebreaker at conventions — and it’s an annual Twitter Festival. 

Recommended Videos

This year, from September 24-26, the Six Words Festival provides Twitter users with a variety of different prompts encouraging them to craft six word yarns. Celebrity judges read the responses, retweet the ones they like best, and decide daily winners. The standout entries may get included in the next installment of Six Words books. 

The first prompt on the schedule was “I Will Never Do That Again.” Members of the cast of Orange is the New Black and Regina Spektor, as well as the creator of the show, Piper Kerman, judged the set of tweets. Jason Biggs was especially enthusiastic (remember, he plays Larry Smith in OITNB). The  creator of Smith Magazine got the ball rolling:

The prompts range from series to tongue-in-cheek, with Tim Gunn deciding who captures their personal style best in six words, and Katie Couric evaluating six word tweets describing the secret of life. Michael Ian Black judged a prompt asking people to tweet “Six Words That Mean You’re Lying.” Responses are still popping up on Twitter even though this prompt contest is over, and there were some good ones:

 Comedian and Twitter genius Rob Delaney judges one of the prompts on the last day of the contest, so that should inspire some funny tweets. 

To learn more about Six Words, check out this video describing its origin story: 

Kate Knibbs
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Kate Knibbs is a writer from Chicago. She is very happy that her borderline-unhealthy Internet habits are rewarded with a…
How to deactivate your Instagram account (or delete it)
A person holding a phone with the Instagram app open on it.

Oh, social media. Sometimes it’s just too much, folks.

If you’re finding yourself in a position where shutting down your Instagram account for a period of time sounds good, the people at Meta have made it pretty simple to deactivate it. It’s also quite easy to completely delete your Instagram, although we wouldn’t recommend this latter option if you plan on returning to the platform at a later date.

Read more
Bluesky finally adds a feature many had been waiting for
A blue sky with clouds.

Bluesky has been making a lot of progress in recent months by simplifying the process to sign up while at the same time rolling out a steady stream of new features.

As part of those continuing efforts, the social media app has just announced that users can now send direct messages (DMs).

Read more
Incogni: Recover your privacy and remove personal information from the internet
Incogni remove your personal data from brokers and more

Everything you do while online is tracked digitally. Often connected to your email address or an issued IP, trackers can easily identify financial details, sensitive information like your social security number, demographics, contact details, like a phone number or address, and much more. In many ways, this information is tied to a digital profile and then collated, recorded, and shared via data brokers. There are many ways this information can be scooped up and just as many ways, this information can be shared and connected back to you and your family. The unfortunate reality is that, for most of us, we no longer have any true privacy.

The problem is exacerbated even more if you regularly use social media, share content or images online, or engage in discussions on places like Reddit or community boards. It's also scary to think about because even though we know this information is being collected, we don't necessarily know how much is available, who has it, or even what that digital profile looks like.

Read more