A couple of weeks ago, we talked about using flash fiction in presentations. Those pieces could range anywhere from two to a thousand words. Lately, we’ve been thinking about the shorter end of that spectrum. What if you had to tell a story with only six words? What could you convey about your life in six words?
SMITH Magazine’s Six-Word Memoirs attempt to do just that– tell a story in six words only. The website implores: “Everyone has a story. What’s yours?” Thousands of people log onto the website to divulge their six-word stories, and the resulting memoirs are organized into categories such as life, love, questions and happiness. “Encyclopedia Britannica cheaper than finishing school.” writes Contemplative. Jl333 writes, “Squirrels never mentioned in motorcycle handbook.” “Freshly washed bedsheets as sunset descends,” muses K822. And kbnelson admits, “If anyone asks, it was me.”
The memoirs run the gamut of human emotion, and sometimes it’s surprising how much can be conveyed with only six words. We previously mentioned Ernest Hemingway’s venerable piece of flash fiction: “For Sale: Baby Shoes, Never Worn,” which could easily function as a heart-wrenching six-word memoir. The beauty of these memoirs is that they can be as serious and impactful, or as fun and trivial as you want. They offer a nice record of feelings, thoughts and events, and they’re good practice for the budding writer. How can you tell your story effectively and concisely? What if you had only six words to get your point across?
Of course, stories that anchor a presentation don’t need to be reduced to six words, but it can be helpful to impose a word limit at the beginning to better realize what is essential to the story being told. More often people find themselves needing to remove words rather than add more. People like to talk. The struggle lies in keeping the story to necessities only. Extra fluff and extraneous description is only going to distract the audience from the main idea of the story. Tell your compelling story as succinctly as possible to keep the audience alert and interested.
If you find your presentation has a concise story that is effective but also seems a little drawn out, use the six word technique to break down the story into several parts. This can be very helpful when determining what to say in accordance with each (visual=heavy) slide. Try to condense a paragraph of information into six words, and see what’s left. That’s the important stuff. After you’ve established the crux of the details, build from there using only the essential information. Channel your inner Ernest Hemingway– blunt, to the point, with no flourishing descriptors or unnecessary tangents. Say what needs to be said. Leave the rest out of it.
What is your six-word memoir? Can you condense your presentation’s narrative into six words?
Try it. We dare you.
